2026-08-26 15:22:14
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 42: The Broken Seal
"Hold still, or I will push this needle straight into your jugular," Evelyn warned, pulling the surgical thread tight against the skin of my neck.I winced as the suture bit into the raw flesh, gripping the armrests of Arthur’s leather chair on the sixty-eighth floor of Vance Tower. The smell of iodine and clean antiseptic stung my nostrils, replacing the bitter stench of jet fuel and diesel smoke."You have six stitches in your neck, second-degree burns across your right forearm, and two cracked ribs," Evelyn said, snipping the thread with surgical scissors. "You should be in an intensive care bed at Saint Jude’s Hospital with an IV line in your arm, not sitting in an executive suite reading legal transcripts.""If I go to Saint Jude’s, Victor Cross’s federal lawyers will file an emergency petition declaring me physically incapacitated before morning," I answered, breathing shallowly to keep the
Chapter 41: The Tarmac Standstill
The smell of jet fuel hung thick in the cold rain, burning the back of my raw throat. My breath rattled in my chest with every inhale. My right shoulder throbbed where the falling concrete in the bunker had clipped me, and my burned neck stung under the freezing downpour. I gripped the aluminum handrail of the mobile airstair with my blistered hand, leaning heavily on it to keep my trembling legs from folding under me. Julian backed away toward the rear of the cabin, cradling his broken arm against his ribs like a beaten dog.Victor Cross, however, did not flinch. He stood on the top platform of the airstair, looking down at me with cold, calculating detachment. He didn't look angry. He looked like an engineer studying a stubborn valve."You look terrible, Leo," Victor said, his voice flat and perfectly composed over the dying whine of the jet engines. "You are bleeding from your neck. You are coughing up soot. You look like a laborer who just crawled out of a boiler explosion.""I
Chapter 40: The Runway Gate
"We are taking the inspection rail-speeder," I said, pointing to the rusted maintenance shed at the edge of the Phase Nine spur.Marcus didn't question it. He kicked the warped wooden shed door off its single rusted hinge.Inside sat a stripped-down track maintenance car. It had no cabin, no windshield, and no body panels. It was just a heavy square frame of welded angle iron, four steel rail wheels, and a supercharged six-cylinder diesel engine bolted right to the chassis. A heavy mechanical handbrake lever stuck up between the two bare metal bucket seats."She hasn't run in five years, Leo," Marcus said, popping the rusted hood latch with the tip of his pry bar."Arthur rebuilt the fuel injectors with hardened brass before he died," I replied, climbing onto the open frame. "Silas, grab the ether canister from the crane toolbox!"Silas ran up with a blue aerosol spray can,
Chapter 39: Bedrock and Fire
The underground air turned to poison in seconds.I dropped flat onto the wet concrete floor, pressing my face into the muddy puddle collecting near the drainage sump. Above me, the roaring heat from the burning thermite turned the fallen bedrock into a glowing red furnace. The thick, acrid smoke curled along the ceiling, dropping lower with every breath I took.My chest burned like I had swallowed hot coals. In my blistered right hand, I clutched the Aegis Core master drive against my ribs, feeling its warm steel casing vibrate against my heartbeat.Above my head, the surface world shook with a violent, screeching snap.Marcus had pulled the pin on Crane Nine.Forty feet overhead, the ten-ton counterweight had dropped like a guillotine. The six-inch braided steel recovery cable whipped across the surface of Phase Four at two hundred miles an hour, cutting through the mercenaries' armored trucks like a straight razor through tin. Even through the dense rock, I felt the shudder of teari
Chapter 38: The Scrapyard Siege
The radio in my hand hissed with the sound of tearing metal and the crackle of burning oil."Silas!" I shouted into the mic, running down the marble corridor of the Supreme Court building. "Do not fight them in the open! Fall back into the lower engine bay and dog the blast doors!""We can't get to the blast doors, Leo!" Silas's voice broke through the static, strained and breathless. "They blew the south transformer with shaped charges! Fire is spreading across the battery room! Two of the boys are cut off by the scrap shredder! They've got heavy machine guns on the flatbeds!"The line died with a sharp pop of severed copper.Marcus kicked open the emergency stairwell door, his heavy boots taking the steps four at a time. "Victor Cross sent his private army. He knew Thomas would lose the court fight, so he sent the sledgehammer to wipe out the physical servers before we can back them u
Chapter 37: The Zoning Hearing
The basement freight elevator of the State Supreme Court building groaned as it lifted us toward the fourth floor.I stood between Marcus and Evelyn, the cotton bandage tight across my split knuckles. The soot was still caked into the seams of my canvas jacket, and every muscle in my ribs ached from the impact on the train. Marcus carried his canvas duffel low against his thigh, his jaw clenched, while Evelyn held the steel probate case locked to her left wrist with a heavy transport chain.When the brass elevator doors slid open, Courtroom 4B was already packed to the rear walls.Over a hundred reporters, city planning officials, and corporate attorneys in dark wool suits filled the oak benches. Up on the elevated mahogany bench sat Chief Justice Martin. He was sixty-five years old, with slick silver hair, cold gray eyes, and a diamond-tipped fountain pen resting beside his heavy wooden gavel.
You may also like
Son-in-Law: A Commoner's Path to Revenge
Naughty Snail124.2K viewsTop Expert in Floraville
Earth at Dawn189.3K viewsRise Of The Student Billionaire
Dragon Sly237.2K viewsBack From Prison!
KMyay181.5K viewsThe 0% Dad Is A Secret Bitcoin King
LIAM MUSE163 viewsThe Women Next Door
Misato's Pen15 viewsDEREK MORRISON CAME BACK FOR REVENGE
Ethelkess113 viewsThe Maestro She Betrayed
John Dave77 views