2025-11-06 03:50:53The moment the red dot kissed Tatiana's sternum, her spine went into lockstep. The rusty, cordite-tasting air in the warehouse thickened. Mira whimpered as she felt Alexander's arms tighten around her.
He yelled, "Down!" and shoved Tatiana to the side.
Behind a pallet stack, they struck the concrete. As the first round punched through corrugated iron, wood splintered over their heads. Another came next, gnawing on the crate next to Mira's foot.
Alexander's earpiece exploded with Grayson's voice. Two hundred yards to the north, sniper on the crane. The wind still has five knots. I have eyes.
Alexander yanked Tatiana flush against his chest and commanded, "Take the shot." Her heart pounded on his ribs.
"Unfavorable. The splash zone has too many civilians. I need you to start a fire.
The fingers of Tatiana sunk inside Alexander's coat. "People?"
He responded sadly, "Mira." "And you."
Another round bounced off a steel beam and whined by. It showered sparks. Alexander's neck was where Mira buried her face.
Glock raised, and Tatiana crawled to the edge of cover. "I count one flash of the muzzle. crane cab.
Alexander's gaze grew strained. "Smoke on the riverbank, Grayson. Give us 30 seconds.
"Replicate. Quit smoking.
Hissing gray, a canister rattled through a shattered skylight. Choking fog covered the warehouse. Alexander took Tatiana's wrist and snatched Mira. "Dock loading." Proceed.
They ran. Concrete was battered by boots. Dust was kicked up as bullets stitched the floor behind them. Tatiana fired three rapid blasts into the fog, blindly. From the crane came a grunt.
They stormed onto the pier through a side door. The smell of dead fish and oil filled the Anacostia. Engine idling, a rusting fishing vessel bobbed against the pilings. From the helm, Cole waved.
"Get on board!" Alexander let out a shout.
Tatiana leaped the opening and landed forcefully. Cole caught Mira like a football after Alexander threw her across. Alexander flailed his coat and followed. The water where they had stood was struck by the sniper's subsequent bullet.
Cole pushed the accelerator. The bow rose as the trawler lurched. Tatiana whipped her hair and braced herself against the rail. Mira gripped her leg tightly.
Alexander looked around the crane. Hunting, the red dot scoured the dock. “Light him up, Grayson.”
"Drones are moving." Ten seconds.
Tatiana buzzed her burner. Unknown figure. "Speaker on," she said.
The voice of Benjamin Whitaker was as seductive as poison. "Good evening, my love. Having fun at the reunion?
The phone was grabbed by Alexander. "Where are you, bitch of a son?"
"Nearer than you may imagine." A laugh. "Alex, turn over the girl. The secret to everything is her.
Tatiana had fire in her eyes. "Over my corpse."
"That can be set up."
The call went dead.
Armed with hellfire, the drone sped across the sky. Metal twisted as orange fire burst from the crane cab. The sniper's body fell and splashed into the river.
Cole steered into the center lane of the river and banked hard. The water was splattered with D.C. lights. Alexander shielded Mira between them and drew Tatiana closer.
With a trembling voice, Tatiana begged, "Explain." "Everything."
Alexander let out a breath. I submitted patent applications for quantum encryption seven years ago. billions of dollars. Benjamin claimed the technology was Whitaker Dynamics, faked my signature, and buried me in Blackridge. I am listed as the primary shareholder on Mira's birth certificate. If I die, she will inherit. To activate the provision, they declared me dead tonight.
Tatiana's cheeks turned pale. "They want her dead."
"Or under control." He combed Mira's hair. "She's leverage in any case."
Cole turned out the lights. "We're not alone. Two speedboats are rapidly approaching.
Tatiana looked off into the night. Searchlights sweep across the river as twin wakes slash it.
Alexander reached into his pocket and took out the silk mask. "Take Mira below, Tat. Secure the hatch.
She paused. "I won't abandon you."
"You're not. You are preserving her life. He gave her a passionate kiss and tasted gunpowder and terror. "Go."
After grabbing Mira, Tatiana vanished down the companionway. Cole and Alexander ascended to the flybridge.
"Armory?"
Cole's chin jerked in the direction of a locker. Alexander opened it (flashgun, grenades, AR-15). A magazine was slapped home by him.
Alongside, the first speedboat roared, chattering machine guns. The trawler's hull was patched by bullets. The boat trembled as Cole swerved. Alexander returned fire, muzzle flash strobing. The shooter fell.
In an attempt to flank, the second boat circled. A grenade was thrown by Alexander. It landed in the cockpit after arcing. explosion. Shredded fiberglass. Sinking, the boat listed.
The only sound to break the silence was the roar of the engine. Alexander descended to the cabin. Mira slept on Tatiana's chest as she sat on the bunk.
He got down on his knees. "We are clear."
She put her hand on his scar. "This concludes tonight?"
"Starts tonight."
She reached for his neck and yanked him down. They kissed more slowly now, purposefully. She tasted of river water and salt. His palm cradled her jaw, thumb tracing the pulse at her throat.
Over the intercom, Cole's voice cracked. In five minutes, we will dock at Navy Yard. Grayson has a safe haven.
Tatiana pressed Alexander's forehead to her own. “What’s the plan?”
"We strike Benjamin in the tender spot. His Senate gala. Tomorrow evening.
Her eyes became stony. "I'm on board."
For the first time in years, Alexander grinned. I anticipated you would be.
A concealed pier was approached by the trawler. With his tablet glowing, Grayson waited on the dock. "Greetings from the war room."
With Mira in her arms, Tatiana left. With his mask hidden, Alexander trailed behind.
Tatiana received a new burner from Grayson. "Isabella ping-ed me." At dawn, Benjamin is relocating Mira's trust fund. We own him, thus we halt the transfer.
Tatiana’s grip tightened. "How?"
Alexander had a steely voice. "We show up at the party."
Flames licked the sky as the warehouse behind them continued to burn.
Headlights off, a black SUV sat at the end of the pier. The driver rolled down the window. Lucy Martin grinned as she leaned out. "Require a ride?"
The Glock was reared by Tatiana. "You let us down."
Lucy gave a shrug. Benjamin makes the payment. But I'm aware of his sleeping quarters. Are you interested?
Tatiana and Alexander looked at each other. She brought the gun down. “Get in.”
Lucy moved to the side. Alexander got behind the wheel. With its tires smoking, the SUV pulled out.
Mira was buckled in the back by Tatiana. "Next stop?"
"Georgetown," said Alexander. "We prepare. After that, we destroy Whitaker's empire with fire.
The lights of the metropolis flickered by. On the gearshift, Tatiana's hand touched his. Their knuckles were white, their fingers interlaced.
In the earpiece, Grayson said: "Heat signatures were just picked up by the satellite. At Dulles, Benjamin's private jet is refueling. He's sprinting.
Alexander blew it away. "Not far enough."
With taillights that winked like dying stars, the SUV disappeared into the night.
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Chapter 190: Sealed Breath
In the sudden silence, the seed's pulse sounded like a silent thunderclap. It wasn’t a threat. It was true. There was a period at the end of a sentence, but it had rolled under the desk and was just waiting to be picked up. They didn’t speak. They merely stared at the little, black glimmer on the white sand. It was beneath the slide, or where the slide had been, but it was now only a metal curve protruding from the dune that had been washed by the sand. “We could leave it,” Alexander remarked, his voice scratchy. He wrapped a protecting arm around Mira, who was quiet, watching the seed with a child’s somber interest. “Bury it deeper. Forget it’s here.” “It would grow,” Tatiana responded, her own voice weary beyond measure. "In the dark." without anyone to observe it. What kind of story blooms in the dark, alone?” She thought about Benjamin, nurturing his hatred in seclusion. "A perverse one." A spiteful one. Thus, we demolish it. Right now. He took a step toward it, his foot sinki
Chapter 189: Death Fruit
The playground was eerily quiet. There was no longer any wind. The distant sounds of the suburb were gone. On the wood chips, it was just the three of them: Tatiana on her knees, a sobbing seven-year-old Mira clutching to her, and Alexander Harrington's elderly, breathless husk with a jar of his final sigh sitting on his ribcage. The floating orchard was gone. The sky was a neutral, flat blue. The golden swing lay neglected, its chains now dull and inactive. All that existed was this finale. CHAPTER 400. Tatiana stared at the jar. The label was final. Absolute. This was not feasible. It was a receipt. For all the struggles, loops, and love that had unavoidably brought us to this point. To a playground where her spouse died of old age in minutes, his life-force robbed to pay the mortgage of 215 destroyed tragedies. Mira’s small hands clutched her mother’s arm. “Is Daddy sleeping?” The innocent question was a knife. Tatiana said in a cracked voice, "No, sweetheart." “He’s… gone.” I
Chapter 188: Sky Swing
The fruit was a gut-punch of recollection made tangible. Tatiana could hear the ghost of her own cry, feel the slick heat of Alexander's blood through her clothes, and smell the cordite and champagne from the gala. Trapped in that sphere of smoked glass, it was all there, a museum display of her biggest failure. To reach Mira, she would have to fly past it. Its proximity seemed toxic, a psychological radiation that threatened to suck her back into that moment, to make her feel the death that had defined so much of their war. Mira swung, heedless in her enchanted sleep, a trapped princess in a floating necropolis of horrible endings. This is his creation, Tatiana realized, hovering, her twilight wings beating the thin air. In order to trap her among the ruins, he enticed her up here. To remind me of the cost of every victory. Benjamin weaponized their own past since he was no longer able to prevail in a straight fight. She gazed from the Death Fruit to her daughter. A choice. Confr
Chapter 187: Swing Altar
The sight of their daughter, ankle-locked to a golden swing and soaring into the heavens with a puppet’s laugh, broke something in Alexander. The cool, strategic half of him was destroyed, leaving only raw, paternal terror. He yelled, "MIRA!" and lunged for the swing set. However, the swing was no longer fixed to the playground's typical A-frame. The cables stretched skyward, unimaginably long, vanishing into the cloud layer. The actual machinery was someplace in the heavens; the set was really a stand-in. Harrison-13 stood back, his hands in his pockets, gazing with a peaceful, inquisitive look, as if seeing an interesting science experiment. He was no longer the shy boy next door. He served a purpose. A plot device. Tatiana didn’t spend breath on shouts. She stared down at her own body, at the ripped bridal robe. She focused on the region between her shoulder blades, where the storm-cloud wings had erupted. They were gone, but the canal was burnt open. The phantom agony served a
Chapter 186: Priest Smile
The word “granddaughter” hung in the fragrant air of the false cathedral, a spider’s thread of possession. Benjamin’s smile returned, thinner now, harsher. The rebellious bride, Tatiana, was not in his line of sight. His sights were on the prize, the heir. Standing motionless in her maid of honor's gown on Mira-20. Benjamin reiterated, his voice a calming, toxic tune, "The story must go on." We transplant to another branch if one fails to produce fruit. The tree is alive. The orchard endures.” He extended a hand toward Mira. “Come, child. Take your mother’s place at the altar. Accept your legacy. After all, you have a birthright to it. Mira remained still. Her eyes were wide, fixated on Tatiana. She was the seventy-year-old female who had nibbled the apple from Chapter 1. She was aware of the price of legacy. Alexander discovered his voice, a rough rasp of sound. “You don’t touch her.” Benjamin’s gaze flicked to him, amused. “Or what, Alexander? Will you use your naked hands to de
Chapter 185: Gold Wedding
It was triggered by the taste. A circuit was finished when a synapse fired. The rented ranch house, the stormy backyard, the chain-link fence, all of it melted like a watercolor painting in the rain. The sensations from the fruit became reality. The aroma of myrrh and orange flowers permeated the thick, fragrant air of a large, packed room. The sensation of silk became the heavy, structured weight of a wedding gown on her torso. The organ's sound gave way to the grand, soaring sounds of Wagner's "Bridal Chorus." Tatiana blinked. In a vast, gothic church, she stood at the end of a long, red-carpeted aisle. Stained glass windows portraying not saints, but elaborate, abstract patterns of thorns and roses, reflect colored light on the stone floor. Hundreds of guests sat in pews, their faces a jumble of happiness and sorrow. All were dressed in impeccable, formal clothing. She was clutching a bouquet of white roses and black calla lilies. She looked to her left. Alexander stood there
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