Ron Donaldo: Rise Of The Apex Don

Chapter 31

The heavy wooden front door of the Crestview Mansion slowly opened. 

The rain poured down in the dark. The forty men of the Iron Legion stood in the wet grass. They raised their heavy guns. The red laser sights cut through the black night, all pointing directly at the open doorway. 

Vane stepped out of the mansion. 

He was holding his hands high in the air. He did not hold his silver pistol. He carried his plain brown leather briefcase in one hand, but it was open, showing it was empty. He wore his boring brown suit. His round glasses were wet from the rain. 

He looked at the army of ex-convicts. He looked at the giant, scarred General Silas Vance. Finally, Vane looked at the black car parked in the driveway. 

Ron Donaldo stepped out of the car. He wore a long black coat over his sharp suit. He walked slowly up the stone path. His blue eyes were calm but very dangerous. 

"I surrender," Vane said. His voice was completely flat. There was no fear, but there was no pride either. "You outplayed me, Apex. My men are trapped. My safe house is surrounded. Logic dictates that I yield."

General Vance stepped forward, grabbing Vane roughly by the shoulder. He kicked Vane’s legs apart and quickly searched him for weapons. "He is clean, my King," the General growled. 

Ron stopped at the front steps. He looked past Vane, into the bright hallway of the mansion. 

Theresa Sterling was kneeling on the floor inside. She was crying so hard she was shaking. Her expensive makeup was running down her face in dark black lines. She looked pathetic. She looked broken. 

Ron walked past Vane and stepped into the mansion. 

Theresa looked up. She saw the man she had betrayed. She saw the husband she had sent to a dark, brutal prison for five years. She expected him to yell. She expected him to pull out a gun and shoot her. 

"Ron," Theresa sobbed, crawling forward on her knees. She reached out to touch his wet shoes. "Please. I am sorry. I was scared! The Director forced me to do it! He threatened to kill me! I had to frame you! Please, Ron, forgive me!"

Ron looked down at her. He did not kick her. He did not yell. He just looked at her with pure, cold emptiness. 

"You did not do it because you were scared, Theresa," Ron said softly. His voice echoed in the large, fancy hallway. "You did it because you wanted the money. You wanted the power. You wanted to be a queen."

"I was wrong!" she cried loudly. "I will give you everything back! Just do not kill me!"

Ron felt his core struggle burn in his heart. The angry prisoner inside him wanted revenge. But the Warlord knew that real justice was not a bullet. Real justice was making her face the truth. 

"I am not going to kill you," Ron said. 

Theresa stopped crying for a second. She looked up, hope flashing in her eyes. "You... you aren't?"

"No," Ron said. He stepped back so she could not touch his shoes. "Killing you is too easy. Tomorrow morning, you are going to walk into the FBI headquarters. You are going to hand them the files on Marcus, the Mayor, and the Police Chief. You are going to confess to everything."

"But I will go to prison!" she gasped. 

"Yes," Ron said coldly. "You will. And you will learn exactly what a concrete cage feels like. If you do not go to the FBI, I will let General Vance’s men handle you. Choose your fate."

Ron turned away from her. He did not look at her again. She was a ghost to him now. 

He walked back out to the front steps. He looked at Vane. 

"The Director," Ron said to the Fixer. "Where is he? What is his next move?"

Vane pushed his round glasses up his wet nose. "The Director is wiping the board clean, Ron. He shut down the city's power grid to cause chaos. He is using the dark to cover his tracks. Right now, he has a team inside Sterling Tech."

"My men cleared the top floors of Sterling Tech," Ron said. "We hold the boardroom."

"Not the top floors," Vane said, shaking his head. "The basement. Sub-Level 4."

Ron’s eyes narrowed. His heart skipped a beat. 

Sub-Level 4. 

It was his old laboratory. It was the secret, highly secure underground room where Ron had invented the Sterling Core engine five years ago. It was the place where he had hidden his personal servers. 

"The Director is destroying your old lab," Vane explained calmly. "He is wiping the master servers. If he destroys those servers, you will have no proof that you invented the engine. You will have no proof of his secret bank accounts. He will erase all the evidence of his crimes, and you will remain a criminal forever."

"How much time do I have?" Ron asked. His voice was tight. 

"The firewalls on those servers are very strong. You built them," Vane said. "But The Director brought the best hackers in the world. They will break the code in exactly one hour. After that, the lab will self-destruct."

Ron looked at his watch. Time was running out. 

"General Vance," Ron ordered sharply. "Take Vane and Theresa to the War Room train yard. Lock them in the trucks. Do not let them out."

"Yes, Sir," the General saluted. 

"I need a small team," Ron continued. "I am going back to the Sterling Tech tower. I am going to the basement."

"Sir," General Vance said, looking worried. "The basement is a fortress. Marcus Thorne spent fifty million dollars upgrading the security down there after you went to prison. The doors are solid titanium. They use advanced biometric locks. Our hackers cannot break a door that uses blood and DNA to open. We cannot just shoot it open."

Ron looked out at the dark, rainy night. He smiled a very small, dangerous smile. 

"We are not going to shoot it open," Ron said. "Get me Zero."

Ten minutes later, Ron stood in a dark alley a few blocks away from the massive Sterling Tech tower. The city was completely black. No streetlights, no cars, just the sound of heavy rain hitting the dirty asphalt. 

Behind Ron stood five of the best men from the Iron Legion. They were dressed in tight, black tactical gear. They did not carry heavy, loud shotguns this time. They carried silenced pistols and sharp combat knives. This was a stealth mission. 

Standing next to Ron was a very strange-looking man. 

His name was Leo Sparks, but everyone in The Pit called him "Zero." 

Zero was a very skinny, pale young man. He looked like he had not slept in three weeks. He wore a dark hoodie pulled up over his head. Over his eyes, he wore a pair of heavy, custom-made mechanical goggles with multiple magnifying lenses that clicked and zoomed. He carried a heavy metal backpack that clinked and rattled with thousands of tiny, specialized tools. 

Zero did not speak much. He was a savant. He understood machines, locks, and security systems better than he understood human beings. He had gone to prison for hacking into the Federal Reserve Bank using a modified microwave oven. 

"Zero," Ron said softly in the dark alley. "Are you ready?"

Zero just nodded his head very fast. He tapped his metal backpack.