Chapter 9 - The Exchange
Daniel immediately dropped his tactical rifle onto the concrete floor and raised his empty hands in the air.
"Let the boy go, Silas!" Daniel shouted, his voice echoing violently through the empty mill.
Silas smiled wickedly, keeping the barrel of the gun pressed tightly against Ethan’s head.
Maya was standing a few feet away, clutching the heavy ledger against her chest, crying silently.
Eleanor was tied to a metal chair near the edge of the catwalk, bruised and gagged with heavy tape.
"You really raised a brave kid, Daniel," Silas mocked, looking down from the catwalk.
"He walked right in here and offered to trade his own life and the book for his mother."
Daniel took a slow step forward, keeping his eyes locked on his former best friend.
"Take me instead, Silas," Daniel offered, throwing his hidden pistol onto the floor to prove he was unarmed.
"I will sign over the entire syndicate to you right now, just let my family walk away."
Silas laughed loudly, clearly enjoying the absolute humiliation of the city's most feared boss.
"I think I prefer to kill you all and take the empire anyway," Silas sneered darkly.
Silas cocked the hammer of the revolver, preparing to shoot Ethan in front of his father.
Daniel closed his eyes, bracing himself to charge the stairs and die trying to save his son.
Suddenly, a deafening gunshot ripped through the humid air of the steel mill.
It did not come from Silas’s revolver.
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Silas’s eyes went completely wide in shock as a dark red hole appeared perfectly in the center of his forehead.
The traitor collapsed backward over the railing and plummeted forty feet to the concrete floor below.
