Chapter 8 - The Scorched Earth
Andrew stood completely paralyzed in the freezing rain.
The laptop screen cast a pale, ghostly light over his face as Emily’s final words echoed in the darkness.
His daughter was alive.
For fifteen agonizing months, he had mourned a child who was out there breathing, growing, and waiting to be found.
A terrifying, cold rage began to replace the crushing grief that had haunted him for over a year.
He turned to Sarah, demanding to know exactly where Vance kept the infants in the facility.
Sarah wiped a mixture of blood and rainwater from her face, her eyes wide with fear.
She explained there was a highly secure, subterranean nursery hidden beneath the basement levels of Evergreen.
Andrew did not hesitate for a single second.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed a number he had sworn never to use.
He called the commander of a private, elite mercenary firm that Whitman Enterprises occasionally used for high-risk extractions overseas.
Andrew authorized a limitless transfer of funds, ordering a full tactical assault team to mobilize immediately.
He told the commander he wanted Vance's entire criminal empire burned completely to the ground by dawn.
He loaded his pistol, checking the chamber with a cold, mechanical precision that terrified even himself.
He promised Ethan that nobody would ever hurt him or any other child in that building again.
Suddenly, his cell phone vibrated violently with an incoming call from an unknown number.
He pressed the answer button, already knowing exactly who was on the other end of the line.
Richard Vance spoke with a calm, arrogant tone that dripped with malicious victory.
Vance admitted that his men had successfully raided the Evergreen facility and moved the most valuable assets to a secure location.
He told Andrew that he was currently holding a beautiful, fifteen-month-old girl with her mother's eyes.
Vance laid out his final, non-negotiable ultimatum.
May you like
He demanded that Andrew bring Ethan and the decrypted flash drive to the abandoned shipping yards at midnight.
If Andrew refused or brought the police, Vance promised he would drop the child into the freezing lake.
