Chapter 6 - The Bloodline
I slowly lowered my rifle and raised my hands in the freezing rain.
Chloe kicked the back of my knees, forcing me down onto the rusted metal platform of the crane.
"You always were too predictable, Anna," she mocked while tying my hands behind my back with zip ties.
"You actually came here to save the husband who threw you out like garbage."
She dragged me down the metal stairs and pushed me roughly into the center of the warehouse.
Thomas lowered his pistol from Mark's head and smiled victoriously.
"Welcome to the end of the line, Colonel Whitmore," Thomas announced.
Mark looked at me with pathetic, tear-filled eyes, realizing the true magnitude of the mess he had created.
"I am so sorry, Anna," Mark whimpered.
"Shut up," Chloe snapped, striking Mark across the face with the grip of her pistol.
Thomas pulled a secure data extraction drive from his pocket and approached me.
"Your biometric data is required to unlock the final firewall for the weapon blueprints," he demanded.
I looked him dead in the eye and laughed softly despite the grim situation.
"You still do not understand what my grandfather built, do you?" I asked.
"The system is not locked by my fingerprints or my voice."
Thomas frowned, stepping closer with a look of growing impatience.
"Then what is the decryption key?" he growled angrily.
"The system requires the active heartbeat of the primary heir to remain stable," I explained calmly.
I nodded my head toward the dark corners of the upper warehouse catwalks.
"And unfortunately for you, my security system is already online."
A deafening hum vibrated through the metal walls of the shipyard as twelve experimental combat drones descended from the ceiling.
Their red targeting lasers swept across the warehouse, locking onto Thomas, Chloe, and their remaining guards.
"I did not come here alone," I whispered.
Captain Rostova stepped out of the shadows on the upper deck, holding the active drone control module.
May you like
She had strapped my baby safely to her chest, and his steady heartbeat was powering the entire lethal network.
"Fire," I commanded.
