All Chapters of His Billion-Dollar Secret: Chapter 71
- Chapter 80
88 chapters
Chapter 71
"This is suicide."Daniel stood with Jayce at dawn, both of them armed and wearing tactical gear. The boat that would take Jayce to the mainland was ready."It's an opportunity. Thomas wants to talk. That means he wants something. People who want things can be negotiated with.""Or he wants to kill you personally. Get revenge for you destroying his sister and mother." Daniel checked his weapon one more time. "Let me come with you. Hidden. Backup.""He'll detect you. He's been planning this for forty years, Daniel. He'll have thought of everything. If I bring backup and he finds out, he kills us both and the meeting ends." Jayce climbed into the boat. "But I'm not going in blind. Leonard's monitoring through satellite. Frost has FBI teams on standby. And you'll be coordinating the rescue if things go wrong.""When things go wrong. Not if. When.""Then I'll improvise. Like always." Jayce started the engine. "Take care of Ella while I'm gone. If I don't come back, if Thomas kills me, you
Chapter 72
"ETA three minutes!"The helicopter pilot screamed over the sound of gunfire rising from the island below. Jayce could see the chaos even from the air. Fires burning. People running. Bodies on the beach."How many hostiles?" Jayce demanded, strapping on body armor despite his broken ribs."We count at least two hundred! More coming from the water! They're coordinated! Professional!" The pilot banked hard to avoid incoming fire. "Sir, we can't land! The LZ is hot!""Then I jump!" Jayce moved to the open door."That's a forty-foot drop onto rocks! You'll die!""I'll die anyway if I don't help them!" Jayce looked at Frost's soldiers. "Who's with me?"Five of them stood, checking their gear. Ready."On three!" Jayce counted down. "One! Two! THREE!"They jumped. The fall seemed to last forever. Then Jayce hit the ground hard, rolled, came up firing. His ribs screamed but adrenaline pushed the pain away.The Evolved were exactly as Victoria had described. Human-looking but wrong. Too perfec
Chapter 73
"This is insanely illegal."Frost stood outside the federal detention center with Jayce, both of them wearing fake FBI credentials. Behind them, a medical transport van waited."You already said that. Three times." Jayce adjusted his fake badge. "You can still walk away. Let me do this alone.""And let you get arrested for breaking a federal prisoner out of custody? No thanks. If we're going down, we go down together." Frost checked her weapon one last time. "But for the record, this violates about forty laws. We could both get twenty years.""If we don't stop Thomas, there won't be prisons in twenty years. There won't be anything human left at all." Jayce headed for the entrance. "Let's move."They entered using Frost's credentials. Real credentials, not fake. She was still FBI officially, though helping Jayce had put her in murky territory."Agent Frost," the guard at the desk nodded. "What brings you here?""Prisoner transfer. Evelyn Walker. She's being moved to a medical facility
Chapter 74
"Twenty-three hours until we move."Leonard coordinated the preparation from a makeshift command center. Maps covered every wall. Weapons were being distributed. People were training despite exhaustion."We're not ready," Daniel said, watching their forces practice room clearing. "Half these people have never been in combat. They'll panic the moment bullets start flying.""Then we make sure they don't panic. We train them hard. Train them fast. Train them to follow orders without thinking." Leonard pulled up the facility schematics Victoria had provided. "We enter here, through the old maintenance tunnels. They're supposed to be sealed but Evelyn knows a backdoor. We split into three teams. Team Alpha—that's you, Daniel—secures the upper levels. Team Bravo—Jason's team—takes the barracks. Team Charlie—Jayce leads this one—goes straight for the command center where Thomas keeps his prisoners.""What about the Evolved? How many will be guarding the facility?""Victoria estimates two hun
Chapter 75
Leonard's voice came over the speakers. "EVERYONE TO DEFENSIVE POSITIONS! WE HAVE INCOMING!"Jayce ran to the main area. Everyone was scrambling. Grabbing weapons. Taking cover."What's happening?" Jayce shouted to Leonard."Motion sensors! Something big approaching from the east! Multiple vehicles!" Leonard pulled up the security feeds. "Oh no. Oh God no."On the screens, Jayce saw them. Dozens of military trucks. Hundreds of soldiers. All heading straight for the warehouse."It's Thomas!" Frost was already coordinating defensive positions. "He found us! He's attacking early!""How? How did he find us?""The trackers!" Victor shouted. "The ones in the clones' blood! He must have been monitoring them this whole time! Waiting for us to gather everyone in one place!""We need to evacuate! Get everyone out!" Jayce was already moving toward the vehicles."There's no time!" Daniel pointed at the screens. "They'll be here in two minutes! We'll never make it!""Then we fight! We hold them of
Chapter 76
"What did you say?"Thomas leaned closer, his perfect face showing confusion. The pain in Jayce's head was getting worse, but he forced himself to focus."I said not yet." Jayce's hand moved slowly toward his belt. "You made one mistake, Thomas. Just one.""I don't make mistakes.""You let Victoria live. You kept her close. You trusted her just enough." Jayce's fingers found what he was looking for. A small injector Victoria had given him hours ago. "She gave me something. An antidote. Something to block the nanobots. Just for a few minutes. Just long enough."He jammed the injector into his neck. The liquid burned going in. But immediately, the pain in his head cleared. The nanobots stopped advancing."That's impossible! Victoria wouldn't betray me! She's my daughter!""She's your victim. And she's done with you." Jayce stood up, his weapon raised. "Everyone! The injectors! Use them now!"Around the warehouse, people who'd been falling started reaching for their belts. Victoria had p
Chapter 77
The facility appeared on the horizon. Massive. Dark. Surrounded by walls and guards and weapons. It looked like a fortress. Like something impossible to breach."That's where they're keeping her," Victoria said. "Level five. Medical wing. She'll be under heavy guard. Probably twenty Evolved soldiers just in that section.""Then we go through them. All of them. Nothing stops us." Jayce loaded his weapon. "Everyone ready?"Around him, people checked their gear. Said silent prayers. Prepared for what might be their last battle.The vehicles stopped half a mile from the facility. They'd go the rest of the way on foot. Quiet. Careful. Trying for stealth as long as possible."Teams split here," Daniel ordered. "Alpha team, you're with me. We take the east entrance. Bravo team, Jason leads you west. Charlie team, Jayce leads you straight up the middle. We converge on level five. We get Ella. We get out. Clear?""Clear," everyone responded.They moved out. Fifty people splitting into three gr
Chapter 78
"We need to talk about that phone call."Leonard found Jayce two hours later, still sitting with Ella. Most people had fallen asleep from exhaustion. But Jayce couldn't sleep. Too much adrenaline. Too many questions."I know. Someone out there knows we won. Knows we killed Thomas. And they're not happy about it." Jayce stood carefully, trying not to wake Ella. "Did you trace the call?""Tried. It bounced through seventeen different servers across twelve countries. Whoever made it knows how to hide their tracks." Leonard pulled up his tablet. "But I did find something interesting. The voice on the call? It wasn't human. It was computer generated. An AI.""An AI? Like Margaret?""Similar. But more advanced. More sophisticated. Margaret was seventy years old technology. This is brand new. Cutting edge. Someone's been developing it while we were fighting Thomas." Leonard showed Jayce the analysis. "The speech patterns. The word choices. The timing. All artificial. All programmed.""So The
Chapter 79
"Where are we going?"Ella asked the question everyone was thinking. They'd been driving for three hours. Away from the city. Into rural areas. Into places with no people. No witnesses. No help if things went wrong."Somewhere Santos won't think to look," Jayce said. "Somewhere off every grid. Somewhere we can plan without worrying about surveillance or attacks.""And where's that?""You'll see."They drove another hour. Finally, they reached it. An old farm in the middle of nowhere. Abandoned. Falling apart. But still standing. Still usable."This was my grandfather's place," Jayce explained as they parked. "James Walker Senior. Before he became part of The Collector. Before he became a monster. He owned this farm. Lived here with his family. I spent summers here as a kid. Before everything went wrong.""It's in the middle of nowhere," Daniel observed."Exactly. No neighbors. No towns nearby. No cameras or satellites pointed at us. We're invisible here. At least for a while." Jayce s
Chapter 80
"How far down do these tunnels go?"Daniel's voice echoed in the darkness. They'd been walking for twenty minutes. Descending deeper. Colder. Further from sunlight and safety."Another hundred feet," Victoria said. "Then we reach the main levels. Where the real facility begins. Where Santos keeps her experiments.""Experiments? Plural?" Leonard sounded nervous. "What kind of experiments?""The kind you don't want to meet. The kind that make the Evolved look friendly." Victoria stopped at a junction. "Left here. And everyone stay quiet. From this point on, we're in monitored territory. Cameras. Motion sensors. Sound detectors. Any mistake and we're caught."They moved carefully. Slowly. Each step calculated. Each breath controlled.The tunnel opened into a larger space. A service corridor. Fluorescent lights flickering overhead. The hum of machinery in the walls."We're inside," Victor whispered. "Inside Santos's facility. Inside the heart of The Collector."They followed Victoria thro