Chapter 9 - The Standoff
Elise clicked the safety off her weapon.
The metallic sound was terrifyingly loud in the quiet aftermath of the storm.
"I need the secondary authorization phrase, Scott," Elise demanded.
Scott raised his hands, shivering violently from the cold and absolute terror.
"You hijacked a helicopter and crashed it," Scott pleaded. "The money doesn't matter anymore, Elise."
Elise laughed, a sharp, humorless sound.
"Twelve million dollars always matters."
She took a step closer to the edge of the rock shelf.
"The bank requires a verbal phrase to finalize the wire transfer from a new IP address."
"Give it to me, or I will start shooting your wealthy guests one by one."
She aimed the gun at a terrified woman huddling near the roof hatch.
Georgia watched Elise carefully, assessing the angles, the distance, and the terrain.
Elise was standing on a patch of slick, wet shale rock.
"Scott, don't tell her anything," Georgia said calmly.
Elise shifted her aim toward Georgia.
"The brilliant wife," Elise sneered. "I am amazed you didn't bleed out in the dark."
Georgia reached into her soaked jacket and pulled out the heavy brass dinner bell she had carried from the lodge.
"I am a disaster planner, Elise," Georgia said.
"I look for structural weaknesses."
Georgia hurled the heavy brass bell with all her remaining strength.
She did not aim at Elise.
She aimed at the unstable, jagged overhang of shale directly above Elise's head.
The heavy brass struck the fractured rock with a loud crack.
A massive sheet of loose stone detached from the cliff face.
It crashed down, striking Elise in the shoulder and knocking the gun from her hand.
Elise screamed, tumbling backward into the mud.
Ruth and the two kitchen workers leaped across the narrow gap between the roof and the shelf.
May you like
They pinned Elise to the ground, securing her wrists with emergency zip ties.
The threat was over.
