Chapter 8 - Ashes of the Empire
The corridors of the Blackwood Compound were a maze of panic. Red emergency strobes flashed rhythmically, casting nightmarish shadows on the walls. Clara moved relentlessly, carrying Mia with one arm and holding her weapon steady with the other.
"Clara, the main gate is locked down," Elias’s voice crackled through the earpiece, frantic. "You have to go to the roof! I'm overriding the helipad controls. There's an executive chopper sitting there. I can hotwire the avionics remotely, but you have to fly it!"
"I don't know how to fly a helicopter, Elias!" Clara shouted, kicking open a stairwell door and firing two suppressed shots into the chest of a guard rushing down the steps.
"I'll guide you! Just get to the bird!"
Clara took the stairs two at a time, her muscles screaming in agony. She could hear the heavy boots of a dozen heavily armed contractors rushing up the lower levels. They were out of time.
She burst through the heavy steel door onto the roof. The freezing rain immediately soaked them. In the center of the massive helipad sat a sleek, black corporate helicopter.
Clara sprinted toward it, strapping Mia tightly into one of the back seats. "Put these headphones on, sweetie. It's going to be loud."
Clara jumped into the pilot's seat. The dashboard was a confusing array of glowing buttons and screens. "Elias! Talk to me!"
"Flipping the master switch now," Elias yelled over the comms. The helicopter's engines whined, the massive rotors slowly beginning to turn, chopping through the rain. "Grab the collective—the lever on your left. Pull it up slowly when I say go!"
The door to the roof burst open. Silas Hawthorne stood there, flanked by six mercenaries with assault rifles. Silas looked at the helicopter, his face contorted in absolute rage. He pointed his cane at Clara.
"Shoot her! Kill her!" Silas screamed over the roar of the engines.
The mercenaries raised their weapons.
"Go! Pull it now!" Elias screamed.
Clara yanked the collective lever upward. The helicopter lurched violently off the pad just as the mercenaries opened fire. Bullets pinged and sparked against the reinforced bulletproof glass of the cockpit. The helicopter spun wildly in the air, Clara fighting the controls to stabilize it.
She looked down through the rain-streaked glass. Silas was standing on the edge of the helipad, shaking his fists at the sky, his dynasty crumbling around him.
Clara stabilized the chopper, banking hard to the west, away from the island and into the dark, stormy night. She didn't look back. The Blackwood Compound shrank into a tiny, insignificant dot in the ocean, eventually swallowed entirely by the darkness.
She reached back and grabbed Mia's small, trembling hand. "We're safe now, baby. Mommy's got you."
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Mia looked up at her, offering a small, brave smile.
The storm began to break as they flew inland. The first rays of dawn were beginning to peek over the horizon, painting the sky in soft hues of pink and gold. The nightmare was ending. But Clara knew her work wasn't finished. She had to ensure the Hawthornes could never hunt them again.
