Chapter 9 - The Final Stand
Clara froze entirely in utter, absolute disbelief, violently and incredibly bravely shielding Leo completely with her own entirely exhausted body exactly as her trusted father aimed the lethal weapon directly at them.
She screamed furiously at Arthur to immediately lower the terrible gun, massive tears of absolute, entirely heartbreaking betrayal violently mixing heavily with the freezing cold rain hitting her pale face.
Arthur's heavy hands were shaking entirely terribly, his older face totally pale and deeply, entirely conflicted exactly as he intensely stared directly at his absolute only, deeply beloved daughter.
He loudly and completely desperately begged Clara to simply step entirely aside, boldly claiming that the highly mysterious hacker had actually successfully contacted him and aggressively offered a highly horrific, impossible deal.
The terrifying hacker completely promised to let Clara absolutely live a very long, perfectly healthy, completely normal life, but absolutely only if Arthur completely surrendered the young boy entirely immediately.
"He is absolutely not a totally real person, Clara," Arthur pleaded incredibly desperately, foolishly repeating the entirely awful, horrific lies that Dr. Vance had actively fed him for five incredibly long years.
"He is absolutely just a very advanced, entirely biological tool completely designed exclusively to entirely fix you, and we absolutely have to give him completely back to simply survive."
Clara boldly stood her entirely wet ground incredibly fiercely, her entirely newly miraculously healed legs heavily planted incredibly firmly right on the freezing, totally wet asphalt of the very busy city street.
She looked her father absolutely completely dead entirely in the eye and proudly, loudly told him that young Leo had miraculously saved her life absolutely more times than she could ever completely count.
She boldly and fiercely declared that absolutely if Leo was somehow entirely just a cold machine, then he successfully possessed infinitely more true, deep humanity than Arthur absolutely ever genuinely had in his entire, completely selfish life.
Leo very gently placed a totally bloodstained hand completely on Clara's incredibly tense shoulder, actively trying to very gently push her entirely aside exactly so he could simply voluntarily surrender to her heavily armed father.
He entirely selflessly whispered that her extremely precious life was completely and infinitely more important than his totally meaningless one, and he was completely, incredibly willing to entirely die just for her.
Clara furiously and violently slapped his entirely freezing hand completely away, entirely refusing to absolutely ever let the beautiful, incredibly brave boy completely sacrifice himself entirely to an unbelievably unjust and cruel world.
Arthur violently tightened his highly unstable grip totally on the heavy pistol, crying incredibly openly exactly as he completely realized he somehow had to actually choose entirely between his entirely precious daughter's absolute life and her totally eternal hatred.
Suddenly, the absolutely deafening screech of heavy tires violently echoed entirely through the totally wet street exactly as three completely marked police cruisers violently crashed heavily into the black, armored SUVs.
Extremely loud sirens wailed incredibly wildly exactly as dozens of heavily armed, totally prepared SWAT officers aggressively poured quickly out, completely and violently surrounding Arthur and his highly trained private security detail.
A commanding officer violently barked incredibly aggressively entirely through a very loud megaphone, aggressively ordering absolutely everyone to immediately drop their lethal weapons and totally lay entirely flat on the extremely wet, freezing ground.
Arthur entirely immediately dropped his highly dangerous gun, quickly raising his entirely shaking hands in complete, total surrender exactly as the highly trained officers swiftly and aggressively moved entirely in to strictly handcuff him.
Clara collapsed incredibly heavily right onto the very wet pavement, actively dragging Leo entirely down completely with her exactly as the entirely overwhelming, incredible relief finally aggressively washed totally over her highly exhausted body.
Paramedics rushed incredibly quickly forward, aggressively wrapping very thick, incredibly warm thermal blankets completely around the totally freezing, deeply traumatized, entirely exhausted teenagers.
As a highly trained medic very carefully and totally gently tended exclusively to the entirely deep cut right on Leo's head, the tired boy looked directly at Clara with a highly confused, entirely hesitant expression.
"I absolutely didn't call the city police," Leo whispered incredibly quietly, entirely completely bewildered by the completely sudden and totally miraculous, absolute rescue.
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Clara looked completely directly entirely toward the totally flashing police cruisers, entirely expecting to happily see a very friendly, entirely helpful face, but her warm blood instantly ran absolutely, entirely ice cold.
Standing absolutely completely unnoticed entirely in the very deep, totally pitch-black shadows of a highly narrow, completely adjacent alleyway was a very tall, utterly sinister man dressed strictly in a dark, totally expensive suit, holding a very recognizable, completely intact silver-tipped cane.
