Chapter 8 - The Betrayal
Julian stared up at the barrel of the sniper rifle, knowing he could not dodge a bullet traveling that fast.
He slowly reached up and unbuckled the straps of his respirator.
He let the mask fall to the floor, instantly feeling his lungs burn in the oxygen-depleted room.
Julian fell to one knee, gasping desperately for air that wasn't there.
Vance laughed triumphantly from the balcony, keeping his thumb firmly pressed on the detonator.
"I finally beat the great Julian Cross," Vance gloated, enjoying the sight of his rival dying.
Suddenly, a shadow shifted in the darkness directly behind Vance.
A figure in a pristine white suit stepped forward from the private VIP lounge.
It was Evelyn, the quiet representative of the royal family who had been sitting silently all night.
She moved with the lethal grace of a highly trained assassin.
Evelyn drew a silenced pistol and pressed the barrel directly against the back of Vance's neck.
"Drop the detonator, Marcus," Evelyn ordered in a cold, aristocratic accent.
Vance froze, his eyes widening in complete shock behind his gas mask.
"Evelyn, what are you doing?" Vance stammered. "We had a deal to split his assets!"
"You are a sloppy, arrogant fool," Evelyn replied smoothly.
"My employers do not want his assets; they want the proprietary AI code that runs this building."
Evelyn swiftly kicked the back of Vance's knees, forcing him to drop to the ground.
She expertly caught the dead-man's switch from his hand before his thumb could slip off the button.
She pressed her own thumb down, keeping the explosive charge perfectly stable.
With her free hand, she pointed her weapon down at the suffocating Julian.
The countdown clock hit exactly one minute.
"Transfer the master source code to my encrypted server right now, Julian," Evelyn demanded.
Julian clutched his chest, his vision blurring heavily at the edges.
He weakly reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone, pretending to comply.
Instead of typing a transfer code, Julian pressed the screen with his thumb to activate a biometric scan.
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"Voice command override," Julian gasped out with his dying breath.
"Execute Protocol Icarus."
