Chapter 5 - The Mastermind
I stared at the screen in absolute disbelief as David's cruel smile filled the monitor.
David and I had built this technology empire together in a small garage twenty years ago.
He had stood next to me at my wedding, and he had cried on my shoulder at Sarah's funeral.
Now, he was the monster holding my wife hostage in a secret underground laboratory.
"I know you are watching this, Andrew," David said smoothly into the camera.
"You always were too smart for your own good, but you were entirely too soft to push the boundaries of science."
David tapped the massive syringe against the metal table, the sound echoing coldly through the computer speakers.
"Bring the boy back to the main corporate tower within one hour, or your lovely wife becomes our next lab rat."
The video feed abruptly cut to black, leaving me staring at my own dark reflection on the screen.
I slammed my fist hard against the desk, shattering my empty coffee mug.
"We have to go save her," Ethan said bravely, walking over to stand beside me.
I looked at this incredibly brave child who shared my exact genetic code.
"I am not going to let him harvest you, Ethan," I promised fiercely.
I walked over to the hidden armory behind the bookshelf and loaded a customized tactical shotgun.
I strapped a bulletproof vest over my chest and packed three spare magazines.
"You are going to stay here where it is safe," I told the boy firmly.
Ethan shook his head with surprising stubbornness.
"You need me to get inside, Mr. Whitman," Ethan insisted.
"The laboratory doors use a strict biometric blood lock that only opens for the primary subject."
I realized with a sinking feeling that the boy was absolutely right.
David had intentionally designed the system so that I would be forced to bring Ethan straight to him.
I grabbed Ethan's hand, and we left the safehouse, stepping back out into the freezing Chicago storm.
We stole a parked sedan and drove recklessly toward the massive glass skyscraper that bore my name.
The Whitman Tower loomed in the dark sky like a massive, glowing tombstone.
I drove the car straight down into the abandoned utility tunnels beneath the building.
We bypassed the main security checkpoints by crawling through the rusted ventilation shafts of the sub-basement.
We finally dropped down into a pristine, brightly lit hallway that I had never seen before.
Two armed guards were standing directly in front of a massive steel vault door.
I raised my shotgun and fired twice, dropping them both before they could even sound the alarm.
We rushed up to the heavy vault door, and I saw the glowing biometric scanner on the wall.
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Before Ethan could place his hand on the glass, the heavy steel door hissed and opened completely on its own.
David stood in the doorway, surrounded by ten heavily armed mercenaries pointing assault rifles directly at our heads.
