Chapter 10 - The Top Floor
Sarah didn’t waste time crying or panicking.
She stood up, her face devoid of all emotion, replaced by a lethal, hollow focus.
She wired a block of C4 explosive from the duffel bag to the vault’s magnetic lock.
She took cover behind a steel counter and blew the massive door right off its hinges.
The alarm sirens instantly wailed, bathing the corridors in flashing red light.
Sarah fought her way to the executive elevator, leaving a trail of unconscious or dead guards in her wake.
She was no longer hiding in the shadows.
She breached the top-floor penthouse suite, kicking the mahogany doors open.
The executive director, a silver-haired woman in a white suit, was sitting behind a glass desk.
Madison was sitting on a leather sofa nearby, holding her torn, empty stuffed bear, crying softly.
Four elite mercenaries raised their assault rifles at Sarah the moment she entered.
Sarah didn’t even flinch.
She dropped her weapons to the floor and kicked them away, raising her hands slowly.
She told the director that she would surrender peacefully if they let Madison walk away.
The director smiled, waving a hand to signal her men to lower their weapons.
She agreed to the terms, tossing the stolen hard drive onto the desk to show she had won.
Sarah walked over, hugged Madison tightly, and whispered into her ear to cover her eyes.
In one fluid motion, Sarah pulled a hidden flashbang grenade from her sleeve and dropped it.
The blinding explosion of light and sound incapacitated everyone in the room except Sarah.
She grabbed a heavy bronze statue from the desk and smashed the window, shattering the glass.
She grabbed the rope ladder of a hovering window-washer rig outside and pulled Madison out with her.
They repelled down the side of the skyscraper, escaping into the chaotic city streets below.
They stole a car, raced back to the shipping container, and found Elias wounded but alive.
Sarah injected the amber serum into Arthur’s heart, watching the color slowly return to his face.
He gasped, his eyes flying open, completely healed and breathing normally.
They had won.
Sarah slumped against the wall, exhausted, finally feeling safe as Arthur hugged their crying daughter.
Then she noticed the television monitor in the corner of the room, playing the local breaking news.
The anchor announced that billionaire Arthur Vance’s body had just been found brutally murdered in his mansion.
Sarah slowly turned her head to look at the man holding her daughter.
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He looked back at her, his lips stretching into a wide, completely unnatural smile.
He tilted his head and whispered that Arthur really didn't want Madison to be scared.
