Chapter 42 - The Glass Perimeter
My heart stopped, then hammered against my ribs with pure adrenaline. Lowering the barrel just enough to keep Victoria trapped in my peripheral vision, I didn't waste a second trying to call Emily back. I lunged backward through the arched doorway, clearing the hallway in three massive strides.
The nursery was bathed in a sickly crimson glow. Outside the wide bay window, the fog churned violently, ripped apart by the downdraft of the low-hovering chopper. A masked operative in tactical gear had one boot over the sill, a tether secured to the helicopter's winch line. On the glass beside the latch, a digital display blinked frantically down from twelve seconds, wired directly to a block of industrial thermite designed to ignite and melt through the support frame.
Emily hadn't hesitated. She hadn't screamed in despair; she had screamed with the fury of a tigress defending her cub. She had seized the heavy bronze lamp from the changing table and slammed it directly into the operative’s throat before he could plant his feet on the hardwood floor. The man choked, stumbling backward onto the narrow exterior balcony.
"Brian! The timer!" Emily shouted, scooping Leo from his crib with one arm while shielding his small body with her own.
I didn't try to disarm the device. The countdown was at five seconds. I grabbed the heavy mahogany dresser, shoved all my weight into it, and tipped it forward against the window frame like a makeshift barricade.
"Down!" I roared, throwing myself over Emily and our son.
The thermite blew with a hiss of blinding white light and deafening percussion, showering the overturned dresser in molten slag and shattering the outer panes into thousands of blistering fragments. The shockwave rattled the stone foundation of the cottage. Acrid smoke billowed into the room, setting off the shrill wail of the fire alarms. Leo began to wail, his small hands clutching Emily's sweater.
Through the pulverized window, I saw the tactical operative swinging away on his cable, disappearing into the fog toward the open bay of the helicopter. Down in the corridor, the heavy oak front door slammed shut.
Victoria was gone.
I helped Emily to her feet, checking Leo from head to toe. Aside from pure terror, he was unharmed. Emily met my eyes through the haze, her face smeared with soot, her breathing ragged but steady.
"She wasn't trying to take him," Emily whispered, realization dawning in her widened eyes. "It was a diversion. Brian, check your phone."
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I pulled my device from my pocket. The screen was already flooded with emergency alerts. Harrington Industries’ primary security portal had been bypassed, and forty-five percent of our sovereign liquidity had just been flagged for automatic transfer under an emergency admiralty injunction.
Victoria hadn't come to kill us tonight. She had come to freeze us in place while she dismantled my family's empire from the sea.
