Chapter 6 - The Ransom
Chloe dropped the bloody steel pipe, her malicious smile growing wider as she looked at Ethan's horrified face.
She calmly explained that Silas hadn't betrayed her at all, and the bruises on her face were applied by a professional makeup artist.
It was all an elaborate, theatrical ruse designed to locate Ethan and capture his brilliant hacker.
Before Ethan could lunge forward to disarm her, his burner phone buzzed loudly in his pocket.
He answered it slowly, knowing exactly whose arrogant voice would be on the other end of the line.
Silas chuckled warmly, complementing Ethan on his resilience and his impressive ability to survive the limousine crash.
He demanded that Ethan digitally transfer the complete master control codes for his proprietary algorithm immediately.
If Ethan refused to surrender his life's work within sixty minutes, Silas promised to torture Maya to death.
Silas instructed Chloe to bring Maya to his private suite at the top of his towering corporate skyscraper.
Chloe kicked Maya's limp body once more for good measure before dragging her toward the waiting extraction team outside.
Ethan was left entirely alone in the damp subway tunnel, stripped of his resources, his company, and his only loyal ally.
He realized he could not possibly fight an army of corporate mercenaries and an arrogant billionaire using conventional legal methods.
He needed to become the exact monster that the media falsely portrayed him to be.
Ethan bypassed the subway exit, walking deeper into the dark, abandoned transit tunnels that ran directly beneath the financial district.
He navigated the dangerous maze until he reached an old, forgotten maintenance hatch located directly under Silas's corporate tower.
Using the explosives he had packed for the original gala infiltration, Ethan blew the heavy steel hatch entirely off its hinges.
He climbed into the main elevator shaft of the enemy building, his eyes burning with a cold, terrifying vengeance.
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A sudden, sharp mechanical whirring echoed from the darkness above him as a heavy object rapidly descended.
Ethan looked up just in time to see an industrial elevator car free-falling directly toward his head.
