Chapter 38 - The Desperate Assault
"Sarah, how much longer?" Emily asked, keeping the gun steady on Victor.
"Ninety-five percent. Just give me ten more seconds," Sarah replied.
Suddenly, the radio console in the SUV crackled to life.
"Boss! Boss, come in!" a panicked mercenary shouted over the open channel. "The courtyard is a meat grinder! We’ve lost six men! The old man is a demon! Requesting immediate reinforcement or permission to fall back!"
Victor, realizing his entire life was over, suddenly snapped. The primal instinct of a cornered animal took over. With a feral, unhinged scream, he lunged forward, ignoring the gun aimed at his head, desperately trying to grab Emily's throat.
Emily didn't hesitate. She didn't flinch. She simply pivoted her hips, sidestepping his clumsy, desperate lunge, and brought the heavy steel butt of her pistol crashing down viciously against his temple.
Victor crumpled to the floor of the SUV like a puppet whose strings had been violently cut, completely unconscious.
"Download complete, Emily!" Sarah announced triumphantly. "I have everything. His empire is officially ash."
Emily ripped the hard drive from the terminal, securing it in her vest. She looked down at Victor's unconscious body, feeling a profound sense of closure. She hadn't killed him. Death was too easy for a man like him. She had condemned him to spend the rest of his short life looking over his shoulder, hunted by the very monsters he had conspired with.
"I'm heading back to the house," Emily said into her comms. "Arthur, what is your status?"
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"I am holding the line at the main doors," Arthur grunted over the sound of heavy gunfire. "They are falling back, Emily! They know they've lost!"
Emily stepped out of the command vehicle into the rainy street. She raised her weapon, preparing to navigate the chaotic alleyways back to the villa, when the sudden, deafening roar of approaching helicopters shattered the night sky.
