Chapter 8 - The Price of Greed
Julian fell heavily onto the gravel, clutching his side where the bullet had grazed his ribs.
The impact had missed his vital organs, but he was bleeding profusely into his ruined white shirt.
Victoria walked forward slowly, aiming the rifle directly at my head to prevent me from helping him.
"Hand over the biometric access drive, Julian, or I will blow her beautiful brains out," Victoria demanded coldly.
Julian groaned in pain, slowly pulling a small, encrypted titanium drive from his pocket.
He tossed it across the roof, and it landed perfectly at Victoria's expensive designer boots.
Victoria smiled greedily, bending down to retrieve the key to billions of dollars in untraceable wealth.
"You were always so pathetically sentimental, just like your foolish father," she sneered victoriously.
She turned her back on us, intending to walk away and let the fire consume us completely.
But Julian had not surrendered out of weakness; he had set a brilliant, calculated trap.
"You forgot one critical detail about my father, Victoria," Julian yelled over the noise of the helicopter.
Victoria paused, looking back over her shoulder with a deeply confused and annoyed expression.
"He always built his security drives with a localized explosive failsafe," Julian revealed with a dark smile.
He pressed a hidden button on his wristwatch.
The titanium drive in Victoria's hand instantly detonated with a blinding flash of concussive force.
Victoria was thrown violently backward through the roof access door, tumbling down into the blazing inferno of the warehouse.
Her final scream was completely swallowed by the roaring flames as the staircase collapsed beneath her.
I rushed to Julian's side, wrapping my arms around him and helping him stand against the fierce wind.
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The helicopter medic descended again, grabbing us both and hauling us up into the safety of the cabin.
As the helicopter banked aggressively away, I looked down and watched the entire warehouse collapse into a mountain of ash.
