Chapter 10 - The Price of Loyalty
Marcus fired three rapid shots through the smoke, driving the guards back behind the doorframe. "Get cover!" Marcus yelled, grabbing Grant and pulling him behind a reinforced concrete pillar.
Emma pulled Lily down behind a heavy medical cart, using her body to shield the young girl from returning fire. Bullets shattered the glass walls of the surrounding observation rooms, raining sharp fragments down onto the floor.
"Julian!" Grant roared over the sound of gunfire, firing his weapon into the smoke. "This is between you and me! Let my family go!"
Julian chuckled from behind his guards. "You still don't get it, do you, Grant? You think this was about money? About Callahan Industries?"
Julian stepped out from cover, holding a remote detonator in his gloved hand. A small red LED light was blinking on top of the device.
"Clara stole something far more valuable than cash," Julian said, pointing toward the room where Clara was trapped. "She stole the research files for Project Chimera—the military-grade neurological agent my company spent ten years developing. The agent that can erase memories... or rewrite them completely."
Grant felt a cold dread settle in his stomach. He looked back at Clara through the cracked glass.
"Why do you think your daughter didn't speak for two years, Grant?" Julian sneered, his eyes gleefully glinting behind his mask. "It wasn't psychological trauma. It was the prototype dose Renata gave her the night Clara vanished. But Lily’s brain rejected the wipe. Her silence was the only thing keeping her mind from fracturing completely!"
Grant’s blood burned with a rage he had never felt in his life. The cruelty was unimaginable. They hadn't just terrorized his child—they had experimented on her.
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"And now," Julian said, thumbing the switch on the detonator, "I’m going to clean up all my loose ends."
"No!" Emma shouted. She scrambled up from behind the medical cart, pulling a concealed flash grenade from her vest. She pulled the pin and hurled it directly at Julian’s feet.
