Chapter 5 - The Rabbit's Heart
The absolute chilling reality of our deadly situation settled heavily over the destroyed cockpit.
We were entirely trapped inside a massive metal tube, completely at the mercy of Silas's greatest and most ruthless enemies.
"We have exactly two hours of fuel remaining before the heavy engines completely starve," Silas stated clinically, checking the digital gauges.
He looked down intensely at me, his sharp gray eyes heavily studying my face with an intense, calculated curiosity.
"Your parents were absolutely not just random innocent victims, were they, Riley?" he asked quietly over the engine noise.
I looked down at my entirely worn sneakers, suddenly feeling incredibly small and profoundly vulnerable.
"My father was a highly specialized freelance digital architect," I whispered slowly, heavily remembering the endless rows of glowing computer screens in our basement.
"He entirely built highly secure encrypted servers for very wealthy, incredibly dangerous people."
Silas leaned back completely in the pilot's chair, heavily steepling his strong fingers thoughtfully.
"He built the ultimate financial ledger for the syndicate, and then he successfully stole it," Silas deduced with absolute, terrifying accuracy.
I nodded slowly, warm tears rapidly welling up completely in my eyes again.
"He told me he heavily found something buried deep in the code that absolutely horrified him, something about a massive assassination list."
Silas's sharp jaw tightened incredibly dangerously as he completely processed the massive implications of my words.
"If the ruthless syndicate is entirely willing to crash a commercial airliner just to kill me and heavily recover a stolen file, the information must be apocalyptic."
He looked directly and intensely at the pink stuffed rabbit I was holding incredibly tightly against my chest.
"Your cousin Julian completely risked his life to aggressively grab your sister, but you threw that specific toy at his face to heavily stop him."
Silas stood up slowly and walked completely over to me.
"Julian absolutely did not want Maya, Riley, he strictly wanted what Maya was heavily holding."
My breath caught painfully in my throat as I finally and entirely understood what my father had done on the bloody night he died.
He had quickly unzipped the back of the stuffed animal and aggressively shoved something entirely inside before forcefully pushing us out the window.
I carefully turned the pink rabbit completely over and entirely unzipped the small, hidden compartment on its fuzzy back.
I reached my heavily trembling fingers directly inside the white cotton stuffing and forcefully pulled out a heavy, encrypted silver USB drive.
Silas gently took the small drive entirely from my hand and plugged it securely directly into the plane's secure communications terminal.
A massive, incredibly complex list of names instantly began rapidly scrolling entirely across the glowing green screen.
It was a highly detailed, deeply methodical kill list heavily targeting government officials, mafia bosses, and innocent family members.
At the very top of the glowing list was Silas's infant son, Leo, heavily marked entirely for immediate elimination.
"They want to heavily wipe out my entire bloodline to successfully seize total control of my empire," Silas growled, his fists completely clenched in pure rage.
Then, my eyes caught a terrifying, undeniable glimpse of the second name perfectly printed on the glowing list.
"Silas, wait, absolutely look at the next target," I pointed frantically and aggressively at the screen.
It was absolutely not a powerful politician or a wealthy rival billionaire.
The exact second name scheduled entirely for immediate execution was Riley Vance.
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I stared completely at the screen in absolute horror, suddenly realizing a terrifying truth.
The massive security guard entirely protecting the billionaire completely shared my exact last name.
