Chapter 28: The Purge
Chapter 28: The Purge
"Sarah, don't!" Arthur shouted.
With a definitive, heavy pull, Sarah slammed the high-voltage lever down.
A massive blue electrical arc flashed through the vault, short-circuiting the server tower in a violent explosion of sparks and ozone smoke. The monitors went black. The blinking lights died.
"No!" Julian screamed, his polished composure instantly shattering. He lunged forward, pressing the black remote button repeatedly, but it was too late. The database was gone. The password was useless because the lock had been destroyed.
In the chaos of the sudden darkness, gunfire erupted.
Arthur moved like a predator, tackling Julian to the floor before the man could draw his personal weapon. The glass bottle of scotch Julian had been carrying shattered against the marble, mixing with the sudden spray of sparks.
Reyes’s troopers moved in, disarming Julian’s men in a flurry of shouts and flashing tactical lights.
Arthur pinned Julian’s face against the cold stone floor, his knee buried deep in the billionaire’s spine. He clicked a pair of heavy steel handcuffs around Julian’s wrists.
"It's over, Julian," Arthur hissed in his ear. "The empire is dead."
Julian spit blood onto the floor, laughing through his teeth. "You think... you think I was the top of the pyramid, Arthur? The Vance board... we were just the caretakers. The real owners... they're going to be very upset you broke their toy."
Arthur dragged Julian to his feet, handing him over to Reyes’s troopers. The basement was filling with smoke from the fried electronics, the emergency sirens wailing overhead.
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Arthur turned to find Sarah, but the space beside the main breaker was empty.
Sarah, baby Hope, and Thomas Hale were gone.
