Chapter 35: Aegis Rising
Chapter 35: Aegis Rising
Before Sarah could speak, the red warning lights on Thomas Hale’s security monitors began to flash.
"We've got a breach!" Thomas shouted, his fingers slamming against the keyboard. "Multiple watercraft approaching from the sound. No lights. High-speed black outboards."
"Aegis," Arthur said, his emotional vulnerability instantly locking behind a cold wall of tactical calculation. He looked at Sarah, but she couldn't even look back at him. "Sarah, we don't have time for this now. You have to hate me later. Right now, we move."
"No," Sarah said, her voice dropping into a dangerous, quiet register. She walked over to Penelope, taking Hope back into her arms. "I'm not running with you anymore, Arthur. Every time I run with you, someone else dies."
"Sarah, they will take the baby!" Thomas pleaded.
"Then let them face me," Sarah said, pulling a small, silver flash drive from her apron pocket—the one she had secretly taken from the bank vault before short-circuiting the main tower. She had lied to Julian. She hadn't destroyed everything. She had kept the master encryption code.
She looked out the window as the first black boat touched the marsh bank.
"Thomas, give me the radio," Sarah ordered.
May you like
Thomas hesitated, then handed her the shortwave receiver. Sarah pressed the talk button, her voice steady enough to cut glass.
"This is Sarah Sterling," she said into the microphone. "To the man in the lead boat: tell my father I am standing in the main room. I have the master key. If a single weapon is fired at this house, I drop this drive into the salt marsh, and his fortune burns forever."
