Chapter 14 - The Vanguard Ambush
The horrifying image of my sons strapped to a cold surgical table burned violently into the back of my mind.
I stumbled out of the prison visitation room, gasping for air as a panic attack threatened to completely crush my lungs.
Damien caught me by the shoulders, his intense gray eyes demanding my absolute focus.
"We are not going to run anymore, Mara," Damien stated, his voice ringing with a cold, terrifying authority.
"If Arthur wants to play a game of monsters, I am going to show him exactly whose son I am."
We rushed back out to the parking lot, but the moment the heavy prison doors closed behind us, the entire atmosphere shifted.
The Spetsnaz operative was lying face down on the freezing asphalt, a pool of dark blood expanding rapidly beneath his chest.
My heart completely stopped, a primal scream tearing from my throat as I ran toward the armored cargo van.
The side doors were ripped completely off their hinges, and the back seat was devastatingly, horrifyingly empty.
"Ethan! Noah!" I screamed, falling to my knees on the bloody pavement, my entire soul shattering into a million jagged pieces.
Before Damien could reach his weapon, three massive, armored vehicles violently boxed us in from all sides of the parking lot.
A dozen men dressed in unmarked tactical gear poured out of the vehicles, raising heavy assault rifles equipped with laser sights.
The Vanguard had not waited for us at the farmhouse; they had tracked Damien’s lawyers directly to the prison.
The lead mercenary stepped forward, a tall, scarred man holding a secure satellite phone in his gloved hand.
He tossed the phone onto the asphalt at Damien's feet, the screen glowing brightly with an active video call.
I crawled toward the phone, sobbing uncontrollably as I stared at the high-definition screen.
Arthur Mercer was sitting in a medical wheelchair, an oxygen cannula wrapped around his pale, skeletal face.
Behind him, in a sterile white room, my beautiful twin boys were sitting on a couch, looking terrified as armed guards watched them.
"Hello, Damien," Arthur rasped, his voice a chilling echo of the man who had supposedly died fifteen years ago.
"Your sons are incredibly healthy, and their genetic markers are a perfect match for my procedure."
I screamed at the phone, threatening to tear Arthur apart with my bare hands if he touched a single hair on their heads.
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Arthur completely ignored me, looking directly at his son with cold, emotionless eyes.
"Come to the island, Damien. Bring the nurse with you so she can watch my rebirth, or I will harvest them both tonight."
