Chapter 19 - The Bloodline Defense
"Mr. Julian!" Fontaine’s voice boomed through an electric megaphone over the intermittent gunfire. "Cease fire! You are harborers of an internationally contested child! Under Section 4 of the European Guardianship Protocol, we have legal authority to take the heiress into protective custody!"
"You murdered her real parents!" I shouted back from behind the protective bulk of the fuel truck, my heart racing as Lily trembled against my side, her small arms wrapped tightly around my neck. "And you used the Sterlings to cover your tracks!"
"Business is business, Mr. Julian!" Fontaine retorted coldly. "Give us the floral handbag and the key inside it, and you may walk away back to your pleasant American estate. Refuse, and both of you will be buried beneath this runway as unregistered casualties of a gang dispute!"
Vance leaned close to me, his silver cane gripped in white-knuckled fingers. "The plane cannot take off with a blown tire, Julian. But there is a service tunnel beneath Hangar 3 that connects to the commercial rail depot half a mile west. If you can get Lily to the train, I will hold them here with the credentials."
"I am not leaving you behind to be butchered, Arthur," I hissed.
"You have no choice!" Vance snapped, his aristocratic veneer cracking to reveal the fierce loyalty he had held for Sarah. "Sarah gave that child to you because she knew you had the strength to stand against these monsters! The key in that bag is Lily’s crown or her headstone! Run!"
Before I could answer, Vance rose from behind the fuel truck, his silver cane raised high. With a sharp twist of the handle, the cane’s tip discharged a dazzling white magnesium flare directly into the center of Fontaine’s mercenary squad, blinding their night-vision scopes in a burst of searing white phosphorus.
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"Go! Now!" David roared, providing covering fire with an assault rifle he had pulled from the security locker.
Grabbing Lily securely in my left arm and clutching the floral handbag in my right, I broke into a dead sprint toward the cavernous, shadowy entrance of Hangar 3.
