Chapter 19 - Checkmate
“What did you do?” Julian hissed, his hands trembling as he stared at the red DoD logo burning on the screens behind him.
“I did what my mother should have done,” Charlotte said, her voice carrying clearly across the silent, heavily armed room. “I devalued your collateral.”
She walked up the stairs to the stage. Julian was frozen, the realization of his catastrophic failure short-circuiting his brain. The warlords and buyers in the room were now screaming at Julian, realizing he had just tried to sell them classified US military secrets in a honeypot trap.
“You transferred the patents,” Julian whispered, all the color draining from his handsome face.
“For exactly one cent,” Charlotte confirmed, stepping up to the velvet pedestal. She picked up the silver briefcase containing her tech. “You aren't a corporate mastermind, Julian. You are in possession of stolen federal state secrets. You just made the FBI’s Most Wanted list, and every buyer in this room is now an accomplice to treason.”
Julian lunged at her in a desperate, blind rage. “I’LL KILL YOU!”
He didn't make it two feet.
Elias was a blur of motion. He stepped between them, grabbing Julian by the throat with his good hand. With a brutal pivot, Elias slammed Julian face-first into the mahogany podium, shattering the wood. He pinned the billionaire to the floor, driving his knee into Julian’s spine.
Julian gasped, blood pouring from his nose.
“That’s for the bullet in my shoulder, Castellan,” Elias snarled, securing heavy steel zip-ties around Julian’s wrists. “And for ever thinking you could touch her.”
Interpol agents swarmed the stage, hauling Julian to his feet. The arrogant, untouchable CEO of Obsidian Holdings looked pathetic, his suit torn, his face bloody and bruised.
As the agents dragged him past Charlotte, Julian glared at her, spitting blood onto the floor. “The Syndicate will never let you live, Charlotte. You hear me? We will burn Solmere to the ground!”
Charlotte stepped forward, closing the distance until she was inches from Julian’s face. She reached into her trench coat and pulled out the silver, two-headed serpent coin he had left on her terrace.
“Tell the Syndicate,” Charlotte whispered softly, her eyes black and devoid of mercy, “that the Queen of Solmere sends her regards.”
She dropped the silver coin into Julian’s bloody pocket.
“Get him out of my sight,” she commanded.
The federal agents hauled a screaming Julian Castellan out of the bunker. The international buyers were forced to their knees, handcuffed, and arrested. The auction floor, once a monument to the Syndicate’s power, was now their graveyard.
Charlotte stood on the stage, the silver briefcase in her hand. Elias stepped up beside her, breathing heavily, wincing slightly as he adjusted his sling.
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“You know,” Elias said, a faint, proud smile breaking through his stoic demeanor. “For a second there, I almost felt sorry for him.”
Charlotte turned to Elias, the ice in her eyes finally melting. “Let’s go home.”
