A Little Girl Pushed My Pregnant Wife Into the Resort Pool—Seconds Later, We Realized She Had Actually Saved Her Life ⭐

"Are you insane?" I roared, clutching my son to my chest. "You want me to take my newborn baby into a Vanguard stronghold? A room full of the people trying to harvest his brain?"

"It is the only way to ensure he lives to see his first birthday!" Aris yelled back, his composure breaking. "If we do not cut the head off the snake tomorrow, you will spend the rest of your short lives looking over your shoulder until Sterling inevitably finds you and butchers your family!"

"David," a weak voice called out.

I turned. Mara was standing in the doorway of the medical bay, leaning heavily against the doorframe. She looked like a ghost, pale and bandaged, but her eyes were fiercely determined.

"Mara, you should be in bed," I rushed to her, but she held up a hand.

"Is he right?" Mara asked, looking directly at Evie. "If we run, what are the odds we survive?"

Evie wiped the blood from her nose. She closed her eyes, her brow furrowing in deep concentration.

"If we run... you die in three days in a motel in Texas," Evie said, her voice hollow. "If we stay here... Sterling finds us in a week. If we go to Switzerland..."

Evie opened her eyes. They were wide with fear. "The variables are too chaotic. The Apex disrupts the math. I can't see the outcome."

Mara looked at me, tears welling in her eyes. "We can't run forever, David. We can't raise him in a cage."

I looked down at the briefcase. A suicide mission to save our son. It was madness. But looking into the silver eyes of the boy in my arms, I knew I would walk into hell if it meant keeping him safe.

"Okay," I breathed, feeling the weight of the world crash down on my shoulders. "Okay. We go to Switzerland."

Aris nodded, relief flooding his features. "I will prepare the jet. We leave in one hour."

He turned and walked down the hallway toward the compound's communications room.

I held Mara close, kissing her forehead. "It's going to be okay. I promise you, I will end this."

But as I pulled away, I noticed Evie staring at the floor where Aris had been standing. Her eyes were locked on something small and shiny that had fallen out of his tweed pocket when he reached for the briefcase.

I walked over and picked it up.

It was a heavy, silver coin. Engraved on one side was the Vanguard insignia—a serpent eating its own tail. But it was the engraving on the other side that made my blood run cold.

Property of Arthur Sterling.

The realization hit me like a freight train. Aris wasn't a defector. He was a retriever. The entire escape, the safe house, the EMP—it was all a setup to isolate us, to get the baby away from the chaos of the Mexican cartel territory and deliver him directly to the Vanguard's doorstep in Switzerland on a silver platter.

"Mara," I whispered, panic seizing my throat. "We have to leave. Right now."

Suddenly, the lights in the compound went pitch black.

The heavy steel shutters over the ocean-facing windows slammed shut, locking into place with a definitive, mechanical thud. The blast doors to the garage sealed shut.

We were locked in.

From the shadows of the hallway, Aris emerged. He wasn't alone.

Arthur Sterling stepped out from behind him, a suppressed pistol in his hand, looking perfectly composed in a fresh, unblemished suit.

"I have to admit, David," Sterling smiled, stepping into the dim moonlight filtering through the cracks in the shutters. "I didn't think the EMP trick would work. But the good Doctor Aris insisted you were desperate enough to trust him. And look at that. He brought the prize right to me."