Ron Donaldo: Rise Of The Apex Don

Chapter 33

Ron sprinted forward. He moved with the fluid, brutal grace he had learned in the prison fighting pits. He ducked under a swinging rifle from the second mercenary. Ron delivered a crushing punch to the man's ribcage. The bone snapped loudly. Ron grabbed the man by the helmet and smashed his head against the solid concrete wall. 

The third mercenary aimed his gun at Ron’s chest. 

Before he could pull the trigger, an Iron Legion soldier leaped from the shadows and tackled the mercenary to the floor. They fought wildly in the dark. The mercenary reached for a knife. 

Ron stepped over the bodies, grabbed the mercenary’s wrist, twisted it sharply until the weapon dropped, and struck the man hard on the jaw. The mercenary went to sleep instantly. 

Ron breathed heavily. He pulled his knife out of the first guard’s shoulder and knocked him out with the heavy handle. 

"Is it done, Zero?" Ron called out, looking back down the white hallway. 

Zero wiped sweat from his pale forehead. The laser pen clicked off. 

"The fake DNA is complete," Zero said. He pressed a button on the scanner. 

The glass pad glowed green. 

A loud, heavy mechanical sound echoed through the deep basement. 

CLACK. HSSSSSSS.

Thick white smoke poured out from the edges of the massive titanium vault door. The heavy locking bolts slowly slid back into the walls. 

The door to Sub-Level 4 swung open. 

"Good work, Zero," Ron said, wiping blood from his knuckles. "Stay out here. Guard the door."

Ron stepped into the laboratory. 

The room was massive. It was a perfect, clean circle of white metal and glass. The lights inside were bright, surgical white. 

As Ron walked in, a wave of powerful memories hit him. This was his home. Over in the corner was his old drafting desk. He saw the coffee stains on the wood that he had made five years ago. He saw the old chalkboards covered in complex mathematical equations that he had written with his own hands. 

It felt like walking into a tomb. The ghost of the man he used to be was still standing in this room. 

But Ron noticed immediately that things had been changed. 

The room was filled with new, dark computer servers. The Director’s men had installed massive, black mainframes along the walls. The screens were flashing rapidly. The hacking program was running. They were wiping the data, just like Vane had said. 

Ron ran to the main terminal in the center of the room. He slammed his fingers onto the keyboard. 

"Cancel deletion process," Ron muttered to himself, typing his old master override codes. The codes he had never told Theresa. 

The screens flashed from red to green. 

SYSTEM OVERRIDE ACCEPTED. DELETION HALTED.

Ron breathed a sigh of relief. The evidence was safe. The bank records, the original blueprints, the video files of Theresa and Marcus—it was all here. He pulled a thick silver hard drive from his pocket and plugged it into the console. He started downloading everything. 

While the data downloaded, Ron looked up. 

In the exact center of the massive room, surrounded by thick bulletproof glass, was the machine. 

The Sterling Core. 

It was beautiful. It was a massive, glowing blue cylinder, humming with pure, clean energy. It was a revolutionary battery and engine combined into one perfect piece of technology. Ron had built it to change the world. He had built it to provide free, clean power to millions of people. 

But as Ron looked closer, his engineer’s brain noticed something deeply wrong. 

The Sterling Core was not just humming. It was vibrating violently. The blue light was pulsing rapidly, turning a harsh, angry purple. 

Thick, heavy black pipes had been connected to the bottom of the Core. Ron followed the pipes with his eyes. They ran straight into the wall, connecting directly to the city’s main underground natural gas lines. 

Ron’s blood ran completely cold. 

"No," Ron whispered in pure horror. 

The Director was not just trying to wipe the computer servers. The hacking program was a distraction. 

The Sterling Core was an engine that created massive heat and energy. If it was fed raw natural gas, it would not act as a battery. It would act as an ignition switch. 

The Director was turning the Sterling Core into a massive underground bomb. If it exploded, the fire would follow the gas lines under the streets. Half the city of Oakhaven would instantly turn into a crater of fire. 

The Director was willing to burn millions of innocent people just to erase his crimes. 

Clap. Clap. Clap. 

The sound of slow, polite clapping echoed from the dark shadows at the back of the laboratory. 

Ron spun around. His muscles tensed. He was ready to fight. 

A man walked slowly out of the shadows. 

He was an older man. He wore a neat, gray sweater and round glasses. His hair was completely white. He walked with a wooden cane. He looked like a kind, gentle grandfather. 

Ron stared at him. The breath left Ron's lungs. His eyes widened in absolute shock. 

It was Dr. Aris. 

Dr. Aris was the man who had taught Ron everything. He was Ron’s college professor. He was Ron’s mentor. He was the man Ron loved like a father. Ron had believed Dr. Aris died in a car crash four years ago while Ron was in prison. Ron had cried in his cell for this man. 

But Dr. Aris was not dead. 

He stood there, perfectly healthy, looking at Ron with a sad, gentle smile. 

In his right hand, Dr. Aris held a small, black detonator with a glowing red button. 

"Hello, my boy," Dr. Aris said softly. His voice was warm and familiar. "You always were the smartest student in my class. You figured it out very quickly."

"Dr. Aris?" Ron whispered. His brain could barely process the betrayal. The pain in his chest was sharper than any knife. "You... you are alive?"

"I am," the old man nodded slowly. "I am sorry I had to lie to you, Ronald. But The Director pays very well for brilliant minds. He recruited me to finish your work on the Core after you went to prison."

Ron looked at the glowing purple machine, then back at his beloved mentor. 

"You built this bomb?" Ron asked, his voice shaking with a mix of fury and heartbreak. "You are helping him destroy the city? Why?"

"Because the world is a messy place, Ronald," Dr. Aris said, his eyes filled with a cold, terrifying logic. "Sometimes, to build a perfect new city, you have to burn the old one to the ground. The Director understands this. I thought you would understand it too, after what they did to you."

Dr. Aris slowly raised his thumb and placed it directly over the glowing red button of the detonator. 

"You should not have come back, my boy," Dr. Aris whispered. "The pressure in the Core is critical. It is time to say goodbye to Oakhaven."

Ron stepped forward, his eyes locked on the red button. 

"Don't do it, Aris," Ron commanded, his voice turning into the deep, powerful roar of the Warlord. 

Dr. Aris smiled a sad smile. 

And he pressed the button.