Chapter 26: The Alexandria Terminal
Chapter 26: The Alexandria Terminal
The tires of the armored Suburban screamed as Marcus Kane threw the heavy vehicle out of the Capitol’s underground loading dock, smashing through a temporary construction barrier and tearing onto Independence Avenue. The morning rain was falling in sheets now, the heavy drops drumming violently against the reinforced ballistic windshield.
In the back seat, Elena held Leo tightly, her eyes fixed on the digital screen Marcus had mounted to the dashboard. It showed a flashing blue GPS coordinate—the Vance private medical clinic in Alexandria, Virginia.
"Marcus, the FBI... they're going to think we fled with the evidence," Elena said, her voice tight with anxiety as she watched three police cruisers swing out behind them in the distance, their sirens wailing.
"Let them think whatever they want," Marcus growled, his foot flat on the gas pedal as he wove through the morning traffic. "Evelyn is currently at the DOJ headquarters presenting the decrypted duplicate data. The law will catch up to Arthur Vance eventually, but the law won't stop that helicopter from taking your sister. We are the only ones who can do that."
"How far out is the launch?" Elena asked, leaning forward.
"The satellite feed says the helicopter’s rotors are already spinning," Marcus said, his face grim as he checked his rearview mirror. "Arthur’s personal security force is preparing a multi-vehicle extraction. They know the empire is gone; they’re operating in full evacuation mode."
Ten minutes later, the Suburban veered off the main highway into a secluded, high-end industrial park near the Potomac River. Tucked between modern corporate offices was a pristine, three-story concrete medical facility with tinted windows and a private helipad on the roof.
The metal security gates of the facility were wide open, two black SUVs sitting idling in the driveway, their doors open as tactical guards rushed crates of documents and medical equipment into the vehicles.
"Hold on!" Marcus roared.
He didn't slow down. The Suburban slammed into the lead SUV at forty miles an hour, a horrific crunch of metal and exploding airbags that pushed the mercenary vehicle sideways into the concrete pillars of the entrance.
The tactical guards immediately opened fire, their automatic weapons peppering the Suburban’s armored armor with a deafening CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK.
"Elena, stay in the car! The armor will hold!" Marcus shouted, drawing his heavy service weapon and firing back through the reinforced firing ports of the driver’s side window. Two guards dropped to the pavement, wounded, while the rest scattered for cover.
Elena looked up through the Suburban’s sunroof. On the roof of the building, the bright yellow and blue silhouette of a medical transport helicopter was visible, its massive rotors creating a hurricane of wind and rain that whipped across the concrete façade.
Through the tinted glass doors of the building’s rooftop exit, two paramedics were pushing a heavy wheeled gurney. Strapped to it was Sarah, her face still covered by a respirator mask.
And walking right beside her, leaning on a silver cane but moving with urgent speed, was Arthur Vance.
"Sarah!!" Elena screamed, her maternal instincts obliterating any shred of fear.
She cracked the rear door of the Suburban open, ignoring Marcus’s protests. Keeping Leo tightly secured in his chest carrier, she slipped out of the vehicle, using the burning wreckage of the mercenary SUV as a shield.
She ran toward the building's exterior fire escape stairs, her boots splashing through puddles of water and oil.
"Elena! Wait for backup!" Marcus yelled, but he was pinned down by a sniper on the second floor, his weapon roaring as he returned fire.
Elena sprinted up the iron stairs, her lungs burning, her injured shoulder throbbing with white-hot pain. Each flight of stairs felt like a mountain, but she didn't stop. She reached the third-floor landing, throwing open the heavy steel door that led directly to the windswept helipad.
The wind from the helicopter rotors was deafening, the rain stinging her face like needles.
Arthur Vance had just reached the helicopter’s side door. The paramedics were lifting Sarah’s gurney into the cargo bay.
"Arthur!!" Elena screamed into the wind, her voice carrying over the roar of the engine.
Arthur Vance stopped. He slowly turned around, his silver hair completely soaked by the rain, his dead gray eyes locking onto Elena. A look of supreme, psychotic arrogance returned to his face as he saw her standing there alone, holding the baby.
"Elena," Arthur shouted back, his voice amplified by the metal hull of the helicopter. "You are a remarkably persistent annoyance. But you are too late. The boy belongs to the bloodline, and your sister belongs to me. Step forward and give him to me, or I will order the pilot to lift off, and you will never see either of them again."
Elena stepped onto the wet concrete of the helipad, her hand slowly moving toward the silver pistol tucked into her waistband—the one Marcus had reloaded for her before they left the Capitol.
But before she could draw it, a shadow fell over the rooftop exit behind her.
Standing in the doorway, his face a horrific, melting mask of scar tissue, his eyes burning with an unholy, demonic light, was David Vance. He had followed them from the mountains, his body broken but kept alive by a monstrous, singular obsession.
In his hand, he held a live, military-grade fragmentation grenade, the pin already pulled, his thumb resting heavily on the safety lever.
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"Father..." David rasped, his voice a terrifying, wet hiss that cut through the wind. "You left me in that cell. You left me to die on that mountain. You don't get the boy. You don't get the fortune. We all burn together."
David lunged forward, not toward Elena, but directly toward his father and the helicopter cargo bay where Sarah lay helpless.
