Chapter 63 - Blood on the Ledger
The halon gas burned in my throat, but the localized filtration mask I snapped over my nose gave me forty seconds of clear vision. Through the swirling white chemical smog, the silhouettes of two tactical operatives breached the vault door, their thermal optics sweeping the room.
They were looking for heat signatures. They weren’t looking for the dead weight of a falling steel catalog rack.
I kicked the rusted support latch of the historical ledger shelving. Four tons of iron and century-old parchment tipped forward, crashing into the entryway with a thunderous roar that shook the concrete foundations. The lead operator was crushed beneath the cascading metal, his rifle discharging into the ceiling as his spine gave out. The second operator stumbled back, disoriented by the concussive slam of air and dust.
I stepped through the gap and put two suppressed rounds through his visor before he could raise his sidearm.
Across the chamber, the Chairman scrambled on hands and knees toward the private blast door, clutching the leather-bound Sovereign Protocol against his chest like a holy relic. Blood leaked from a gash on his temple where flying shrapnel had grazed him. The aura of omnipotence had evaporated; he was just an old parasite terrified of losing his hosts.
I caught him by the collar of his bespoke coat, hauling him backward onto the shattered remains of the table. His head cracked against the polished oak, stunning him.
"You don't understand what you're destroying," he wheezed, his manicured hands clawing at my wrists. "The Board... the Sterling ledgers... we stabilize the currency reserves of thirty-four sovereign nations! If the protocol isn't signed by midnight, the automated liquidation cascades begin. The banks fail by dawn!"
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"Let them burn," I whispered, pressing the warm barrel of my weapon directly beneath his chin. "You built an empire on blood, extortion, and broken daughters. Did you really think I’d sit on your throne just to keep the lights on in your slaughterhouse?"
With my free hand, I snatched the Sovereign Protocol, ripping the master authentication card from its inner sleeve, and drove the butt of my sidearm into the Chairman's jaw, plunging him into darkness.
