Chapter 15 - The Betrayal of Blood
Ethan sprinted down the rusty fire escape, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird.
He threw himself into the passenger seat of the rented SUV, screaming at David to get them to the nearest private airfield immediately.
David slammed the accelerator to the floor, weaving recklessly through the heavy Miami traffic as he demanded to know what happened.
Ethan explained the devastating betrayal, his voice shaking with a mixture of profound rage and absolute terror.
Sarah had not panicked during the surgery; her fear had been a meticulously calculated performance to secure the pathogen.
Worse still, the elite security detail Ethan had hired to protect Claire was actively working for the Apex BioGen syndicate.
Ethan pulled out his phone, his hands trembling as he dialed Claire's number, praying to hear her voice.
The phone rang endlessly, eventually clicking over to her cheerful, automated voicemail, causing Ethan to smash his fist against the dashboard.
David bypassed the commercial airports entirely, driving straight onto the tarmac of a private charter company.
Ethan threw a stack of stolen cash from Marcus’s office at a stunned helicopter pilot, demanding an immediate, illegal flight back to Charleston.
The flight took a grueling two hours, every single second feeling like an eternity of agonizing suspense.
As the helicopter approached the dark coastline of South Carolina, Ethan saw the faint, terrifying glow of orange flames in the distance.
His beautiful new beach house was completely engulfed in a raging inferno, the flames licking high into the night sky.
The pilot refused to land near the fire, hovering a quarter-mile down the beach as Ethan violently unbuckled his harness.
He jumped from the helicopter into the shallow surf, sprinting across the wet sand toward the burning wreckage of his home.
Local fire trucks had just arrived, blasting heavy streams of water into the collapsed roof of the living room.
Ethan fought past the police barricades, screaming Claire's name until his vocal cords physically tore.
A charred body was being loaded into a coroner's van, and Ethan fell to his knees, his entire world shattering into dust.
Suddenly, a cold, metallic barrel was pressed firmly against the back of his neck from out of the shadows.
A familiar voice whispered in his ear, ordering him to stand up slowly and walk toward the dark tree line.
It was Sarah, dressed in tactical gear, holding a suppressed pistol with a hand that no longer shook.
She coldly informed Ethan that the body in the fire belonged to one of the mercenary guards, not Claire.
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She smiled maliciously, revealing that Claire was currently chained in the back of a cargo plane bound for Geneva.
Sarah demanded Ethan surrender his medical research, or she would order the syndicate to slowly dissect Claire alive.
