Chapter 9 - The Broadcast
Derek collapsed heavily onto the expensive Persian rug, his limbs instantly turning to dead weight.
The powerful paralytic toxin coursed rapidly through his veins, freezing his muscles completely while leaving his mind entirely awake.
He could not move his arms or legs, but his eyes darted frantically around the dimly lit room.
Eleanor walked casually over to his paralyzed body and kicked his discarded pistol safely out of reach.
"You abandoned my son in a canyon so you could cover up a weapons deal with a local warlord," Eleanor said coldly.
She walked over to an expensive mahogany bookcase and pressed a hidden button.
The bookcase slid smoothly aside, revealing a high-definition broadcasting camera and a complex audio mixing board.
Eleanor turned the equipment on, a bright red recording light blinking ominously in the dark study.
"General Hale is too powerful to be taken down by a simple paper trail," Eleanor explained, adjusting the camera lens to focus directly on Derek’s face.
"I need a highly decorated, dying man to confess to the entire country on live television."
Derek tried to scream, to beg for his life, but his paralyzed vocal cords could only produce a pathetic, breathless wheeze.
"The toxin I used will stop your heart in exactly ten minutes," Eleanor lied beautifully, holding up a small glass vial filled with blue liquid.
"This is the antidote, and you will only get it if you tell the absolute truth to the millions of people currently watching this livestream."
She tapped a button on her tablet, connecting the video feed directly to the emergency broadcast system she had hacked.
"Speak, Colonel Maddox, or die entirely in vain," Eleanor commanded, stepping out of the camera's frame.
The sheer terror of imminent death finally broke through the chemical paralysis gripping his throat.
With a ragged, agonizing gasp, Derek began to speak into the microphone.
He confessed to everything.
He admitted to the illegal weapons smuggling, the falsified combat logs, and the cowardly order to abandon Captain David Bennett.
He named General Hale as the mastermind and listed every single corrupt officer involved in the black-market syndicate.
Tears of profound humiliation and physical pain streamed down his face as he destroyed his own legacy.
"I did it," Derek sobbed weakly, staring directly into the camera lens. "I left him there to die."
Eleanor watched the viewership numbers on her tablet climb into the tens of millions before she finally pressed the button to cut the feed.
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She walked back over to Derek, looked down at his terrified, pleading eyes, and smiled.
"There is no antidote, Derek, because that was only a temporary muscle relaxant," Eleanor said, just as the heavy wooden doors of her study violently burst open.
