Chapter 17 - The Grand Patriarch
"You are completely surrounded, Grant," Victor Vane’s voice echoed down from the ridge highway, amplified by a loudspeaker system. "Drop your weapons, or my men will turn this ravine into a mass grave."
Grant looked around. Marcus was low on ammo. Clara was standing near the rock wall, her face pale as she stared up at her father—the ghost who had pulled the strings of her nightmare for two decades.
Emma stepped out from the pine trees, holding Lily tightly in her arms.
"Father..." Clara’s voice shook as she took a step forward, looking up at the ridge. "Why? Why do this to your own family? To your granddaughter?"
Victor looked down at her, his expression cold and detached, like an emperor looking at a rebellious subject. "Family is a luxury, Clara. Power is a necessity. The research you stole contains the key to controlling high-level corporate and political figures worldwide. Did you really think I would let you give it to the federal government?"
Victor gestured to his lieutenant beside him. "Bring them up. Kill Callahan and the security officer. Bring my daughter and granddaughter to the transport."
"Wait!" Lily’s small voice suddenly rang out, cutting through the freezing air.
The entire line of armed mercenaries hesitated.
Lily pulled away from Emma, stepping forward into the open snow. She looked up at the old man on the ridge, her small frame shivering in the cold, but her blue eyes burning with an incredible, terrifying clarity.
She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a small, metallic silver cylinder—the secondary backup drive Clara had hidden inside her plush bear before they fled the house in New Jersey.
"You want this?" Lily yelled up to her grandfather.
Victor’s eyes widened slightly. "The master key..."
"Lily, no!" Clara screamed.
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Lily looked up at Victor Vane with zero fear. "If you hurt my daddy, I throw it in the river!"
She turned and held the drive over the roaring, ice-cold mountain rapids running through the bottom of the canyon.
