Chapter 9 - The Devil's Bargain
I stared at the titanium flash drive in my hand, feeling its cold weight.
Camille leaned heavily against the cavern wall, her face draining of color.
I refused to leave her behind to die in the dirt.
I grabbed her uninjured arm and pulled her deeper into the abandoned copper mine.
Everett and Blake stumbled blindly ahead of us in the darkness.
We reached a massive central chamber where three different tunnels intersected.
There was nowhere else to run.
The heavy boots of the mercenaries echoed down the corridor behind us.
They were moving slowly, using tactical flashlights to sweep the shadows.
I realized we were completely out of options.
I had no weapons, no backup, and three civilians to protect.
But I had the one thing Marcus Vance wanted more than blood.
I stepped out from behind a rusted mining cart into the center of the chamber.
I raised my hands, holding the silver flash drive high in the air.
Four laser sights instantly painted my chest in bright red dots.
The lead mercenary stepped forward, his rifle leveled at my head.
I told him I was willing to make a trade.
I offered him the drive in exchange for letting all of us walk out of the mine alive.
The mercenary laughed, a harsh, metallic sound.
He said Marcus Vance did not negotiate with dead men.
Suddenly, Everett Whitmore stepped out from the shadows to stand beside me.
The billionaire looked the mercenary dead in the eye.
Everett offered the man fifty million dollars transferred instantly to any offshore account in the world.
The only condition was that the mercenary had to shoot me and destroy the drive.
Blake screamed at his father, horrified by the ultimate betrayal.
Everett did not blink, telling his son that this was how the world actually worked.
The mercenary slowly lowered his rifle, considering the massive payday.
I knew I had to play my last card before the greed took over.
I pulled my rugged, waterproof tablet from my cargo pocket.
I plugged the flash drive into the port, threatening to upload everything to the cloud immediately.
I opened the main file directory to prove the data was real.
But the files that populated the screen were not financial records or blackmail documents.
It was a live, high-definition video feed.
I stared at the screen, my blood turning to absolute ice.
The camera was inside a college dormitory room.
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My daughter, Sophie, was sitting at her desk, entirely unaware she was being watched.
And standing directly behind her, holding a suppressed pistol to the back of her head, was a man in a black suit.
