Chapter 15 - Blood on the Velvet.The room froze for a fraction of a second, a tableau of shocked billionaires and hardened criminals staring at the ghost who had just breached their fortress.
Arthur’s arrogant smile vanished instantly, replaced by a look of sheer, unadulterated terror as he recognized the woman holding the gun.
“Kill her!” the syndicate boss roared, overturning his chair as he dove behind the heavy oak table for cover.
I didn't hesitate; I fired a precision shot that shattered the customized data drive in Arthur’s hand into a million useless pieces of plastic and silicon.
Before the surrounding enforcers could draw their weapons, I tossed the EMP emitter from my clutch into the center of the room.
A silent pulse of blue energy ripped through the penthouse, blowing out the lights, shattering the holograms, and plunging the room into chaotic darkness.
Gunfire erupted blindly in the dark, the muzzle flashes briefly illuminating the terrified faces of the international buyers scrambling for the exits.
I dropped to the floor, rolling smoothly across the plush velvet carpet to avoid a deadly spray of automatic fire that chewed up the wall behind me.
Using my night-vision contact lenses, I navigated the chaos with lethal efficiency, neutralizing two syndicate guards with swift, brutal strikes to their knees and throats.
“Sterling, the drive is destroyed, but things got loud; I need an exfil route now!” I shouted into my comms over the deafening roar of gunfire.
“The rooftop is compromised; they have an armed helicopter circling the building,” Sterling replied, his voice strained with exertion.
“I’m blowing the structural charges in the elevator shaft; grapple down to the 40th floor, now!” he ordered.
I sprinted toward my father, who was cowering behind a marble pillar, paralyzed by the violence he had unleashed but never truly experienced firsthand.
I grabbed him by the collar of his expensive suit, dragging him mercilessly toward the blown-out elevator doors.
“You’re coming back with me to face the music, Arthur,” I snarled, clipping a heavy-duty carabiner to his belt and attaching the line to the steel elevator cables.
Just as I prepared to push him over the edge, a massive silhouette stepped out of the smoke, racking the slide of a heavy shotgun.
It was Julian, holding the weapon with shaking hands, his eyes wild and desperate in the flashing emergency lights.
He hadn't been abandoned in the holding cell after all; he had cut his own deal with the Crimson Lotus.
May you like
“Let him go, Celeste, or I swear to God I’ll blow you in half,” Julian screamed, pointing the barrel directly at my chest.
The betrayal cut deeper than any physical wound, leaving us locked in a deadly standoff at the edge of the abyss.
Related Stories
