Chapter 60 - The Fire and the Salt
The white chemical fog of the halogen gas poured down from the vaulted ceiling like a waterfall, pooling along the floor and displacing the oxygen in suffocating waves.
"Ethan, the vent!" I screamed, grabbing Leo by the collar and shoving him toward the maintenance ladder welded to the eastern wall. "Go! Maya, climb!"
Maya scrambled up the rungs with frantic speed, Leo right behind her, using his small body to shield his sister.
Arthur broke cover from behind the pedestal, his face contorted in an animalistic rage. He didn't care about the gas. He didn't care about the sirens. He lunged across the catwalk, his combat knife drawn, aiming directly for Ethan’s exposed flank.
"You took everything from me!" Arthur shrieked through the fog.
Ethan spun, bringing the empty rifle up to parry the strike. The heavy ceramic blade cleaved through the synthetic stock of the weapon, the momentum slamming Ethan back against the safety railing overlooking the reservoir.
Arthur drove his weight forward, pressing the blade down toward Ethan’s chest. "I was supposed to be the king of this dynasty!"
"There is no dynasty!" Ethan grunted, his forearms shaking as he fought against Arthur’s downward press, the blade mere inches from his throat. "There's only blood and ash!"
I didn't hesitate. I snatched a fallen contractor's sidearm from the grating, stepped forward through the blinding cloud of white gas, and leveled the barrel at the back of Arthur’s skull.
"Arthur," I said.
He froze.
Slowly, his head turned, his dark, scarred face emerging from the white mist, looking down the barrel of the gun.
"Six months ago," I whispered, my voice steady, my finger smooth against the cold steel of the trigger, "you let my husband and my children be marked for death so Victoria could protect her stolen billions. You missed the funeral."
Arthur’s lips curled into a bloody, desperate sneer. "Claire... we're family..."
"No," I said. "We're the end of the line."
I pulled the trigger twice.
The concussive blasts were deafening in the enclosed cavern. Arthur’s eyes glazed over, his body slumping forward over the railing before slipping completely over the edge, plunging forty feet into the dark, churning waters of the reservoir below.
May you like
"Claire! Move!" Ethan coughed, choking on the encroaching gas as he grabbed my hand, hauling me toward the maintenance ladder.
We climbed through the blinding fog, our lungs burning, our muscles screaming, bursting through the auxiliary hatch onto the windswept summit of Black Rock Island just as the cavern beneath us sealed completely, swallowing the Genesis Vault and the Vance legacy into an airtight, watery tomb.
