Chapter 9 - The Master Ledger
The structural pillars cracked loudly, sending massive chunks of marble crashing onto the flooded floor.
"Get Claire and the baby out of here now!" Mara commanded her tactical medics.
The medics swiftly lifted me onto a portable stretcher, tightly securing my newborn daughter to my chest.
Julian used the fiery distraction to sprint out onto the terrace and disappear into the dense, dark rows of grapevines.
"He cannot leave with that ledger!" I shouted to Mara over the roaring flames.
Mara nodded fiercely, drawing her sidearm and sprinting into the darkness after the syndicate boss.
The medics rapidly carried my stretcher out the front doors just as a federal medical helicopter touched down on the lawn.
I watched in terror as thick black smoke poured from the roof of the luxurious vineyard estate.
Inside the helicopter, the flight nurses immediately connected me to oxygen and wrapped my baby in warming blankets.
From my window, I saw Julian running toward a hidden, private helipad located near the edge of the property.
A sleek black syndicate helicopter was already spinning up its rotors, preparing to completely extract him.
Mara emerged from the vines, sprinting across the open grass, but she was too far away to catch him on foot.
Julian laughed triumphantly, climbing into the passenger seat and clutching the hard drive to his chest.
The dark helicopter lifted off the ground, the powerful downwash blowing Mara backward into the grass.
Mara dropped to one knee, raised her tactical rifle, and aimed carefully through her thermal scope.
She fired a single, precise shot that struck the critical tail rotor of the ascending aircraft.
The syndicate helicopter spun violently out of control and crashed heavily back onto the private helipad, completely disabled.
Federal agents immediately swarmed the wreckage, dragging a stunned and defeated Julian out of the cabin.
May you like
I smiled deeply, knowing the nightmare was truly over, until my phone suddenly buzzed with a notification on the stretcher beside me.
Evan, lying handcuffed and bleeding in the ballroom, had secretly triggered a remote dead-man's switch to wipe the government servers.
