Chapter 17 - The Countdown
Thick, toxic black smoke rapidly filled the confined server room, obscuring my vision entirely.
The blaring klaxons of the rig's emergency alarm system shrieked over the deafening sound of the storm outside.
"Grace, get to the console and stop that transfer!" I shouted, firing blindly into the smoke to keep Carlo pinned down.
Grace ducked under a hail of return fire from Carlo, scrambling toward the main computer terminal.
Her fingers flew across the keyboard in a desperate blur, trying to initiate a manual override on the cartel's encryption protocol.
"I need exactly two minutes, Julian! The firewall is military-grade!" she yelled over the chaos.
Carlo laughed from the shadows, his voice echoing eerily off the metal walls.
"You cannot stop it, Grace! The moment that money moves, I will have the resources to hunt your precious Amara until the end of time," he taunted.
The mention of my daughter's name sent a surge of pure, unfiltered adrenaline straight into my heart.
I abandoned my cover, sprinting directly into the thick smoke toward the sound of his voice.
Carlo popped out from behind a cooling unit, firing three rapid shots at my chest.
One bullet grazed my ribs, but the heavy Kevlar plating of my tactical vest absorbed the deadly impact.
I tackled Carlo with the force of a battering ram, sending us both crashing violently through a glass partition.
We landed on the lower maintenance catwalk, our weapons knocked far out of reach in the struggle.
It was just the two of us now, fighting brutally hand-to-hand on a narrow steel bridge suspended over the raging ocean.
Carlo drew a curved karambit knife from his belt, slashing viciously at my face.
I leaned back, feeling the razor-sharp blade slice a thin line across my cheek, and countered with a devastating hook to his ribs.
Carlo gasped, stumbling backward against the rusted metal railing.
"You are old and slow, Julian. Your time is over," he spat, wiping blood from his mouth.
"I am a father protecting his child. That makes me immortal," I growled, charging forward again.
I grabbed his knife arm, twisting it violently until I heard the sickening pop of his shoulder dislocating.
Carlo screamed in agony, dropping the blade as I drove my knee directly into his chest.
He collapsed onto the grated floor, completely incapacitated and gasping heavily for air.
Suddenly, Grace's voice crackled loudly over my tactical earpiece.
"I bypassed the firewall! The transfer is completely canceled, and I am wiping the servers clean right now!" she cheered triumphantly.
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Carlo looked up at me, his eyes widening in absolute despair as he realized his empire had just vanished into digital dust.
The Volkov fortune was gone forever, and with it, his entire reason for betrayal.
