HEIR TO POWER

Chapter 5 – Phase Two

The rain returned that night, hard, fast, relentless, But Robert didn’t flinch as it pelted the windows.

He stood shirtless in his private gym, gloves on, fists pounding the heavy bag with a rhythm sharper than gunfire.

Each strike echoed his thoughts, Jason Ford, Vanessa Shaw, Derrick Wolfe, The man in the cage. The bullet in the box. The war had begun. And he was done waiting. At dawn, a secure alert buzzed across the penthouse’s private server.

Target Identified: “Echo Facility.”

Alias: The Black Gate.

Owner: Undisclosed. Location: 14 miles outside city limits.

Function: Extraction, Surveillance, Disposal.

Robert sat in front of the screen, jaw tense. The note was signed: "Courtesy of C. Let’s play."

A digital map pulsed, highlighting a facility behind electric fences and buried in forested hills, Robert looked at Thomas. “Get the SUV. We’re going hunting.”

By noon, Robert stood at the edge of the woods, black tactical coat pulled tight, eyes locked on the distant outline of steel fencing beyond the trees.

Beside him, Thomas held a tablet connected to a drone sweeping the perimeter. “The place is real,” Thomas said. “And illegal. No public records, no ownership trail. You were right. Whoever’s running this is serious.”

“Good,” Robert replied. “So am I.”

They broke in at 1:12 PM.

No alarms. No resistance, Which made it worse. Inside, they found evidence rooms. Rows of lockers with coded files, flash drives, surveillance photos, names and faces Robert didn’t recognize. Until he did.

On one wall, pinned beneath a map of Kingsbridge, was a photograph of himself, Next to it: his apartment, Then his bus stop, Then… his mother’s grave, His stomach dropped.

“Whoever did this has been watching for years,” Thomas muttered, grim.

Robert’s fists clenched, Then they found the freezer room, Six bodies. Cold. Preserved. Nameless. A few still with IDs. Tech workers. Whistleblowers. One woman in a Clarion PR badge. Vanessa’s firm.

Robert backed out slowly, eyes dark. “This isn’t just about me,” he whispered. “This is a machine.”

“And you just stepped on its power cord,” Thomas said quietly.

Outside the facility, the convoy was waiting. Rain pouring. The engines idled like growls, Robert sat inside and stared at the forest for a long time.

Then turned to Thomas. “Leak the location. Anonymously. Tip off the press. And the authorities.”

“Won’t that draw attention to you?”

“I want it to.”

Thomas raised a brow. “I want them to know I found it,” Robert said. “I want them to panic.”

By 6 PM, the internet exploded.

SECRET FACILITY RAIDED – WHO’S BEHIND ‘THE BLACK GATE’?

CORPSE STORAGE, ILLEGAL SURVEILLANCE, AND CORPORATE COVERUPS EXPOSED

Anonymous Whistleblower Destroys Hidden Power Network

Within the hour, phones rang across the city. Executives disappeared from dinners. Clarion PR shut down its website. Derrick Wolfe’s investment fund pulled back a major acquisition. Politicians fumbled for comment.

The fear Robert saw in the headlines was real. And intoxicating. He wasn’t just rising now, He was unstoppable. But someone was watching.

Far away, behind a monitor wall, the same mysterious woman from before stood facing a table of seated figures. All in shadows. All silent. “We underestimated him,” she said coolly.

One man leaned forward. “Then remove him.”

The woman nodded once. “We’re initiating Protocol Cinder. Tonight.”

Back in Kingsbridge, Robert was reviewing documents in his study when Thomas burst in, without knocking. “Sir. You need to see this.”

He turned the screen toward Robert. Footage. Live, His penthouse. Now, Cameras ones Robert didn’t install, flickering. Distorted. Then a new feed cut in. His mother’s grave, A single red flower laid on the headstone, And standing next to it… was Vanessa.

Vanessa’s hands trembled as she placed the flower on the grave, A voice behind her said, “He knows you’re here.”

She turned slowly, Derrick Wolfe stood in the rain, And beside him… a woman with silver eyes and a scar across her neck. “He’ll come for her,” the woman whispered. “Then we’ll burn his empire to the ground.”