Chapter 16 - BLOOD TIESBang.
The shot didn't come from Alexander's flare gun.
Alexander froze. He looked down at his chest. A blooming crimson stain was spreading across his white dress shirt, perfectly centered over his heart. He gasped, dropping the flare gun, falling to his knees in the snow.
Julian turned in shock. Standing thirty yards away, at the edge of the tree line, holding a smoking, long-barreled sniper rifle, was a figure draped in a heavy winter coat.
The figure stepped forward into the moonlight, pulling back the hood.
It was Victoria.
"Victoria?" Julian whispered, completely stunned.
She was bruised, shivering, and looked like a ghost, but she was alive. She lowered the rifle, staring at Julian with hollow, exhausted eyes.
"He shot a blank at my head," Victoria said, her voice shaking violently. "A theatrical trick. He wanted to torture me later. He left me tied up while he focused on you. But I managed to cut the zip-ties on a piece of broken glass."
Alexander collapsed onto his back, coughing violently. His biometric heart monitor began to beep—a frantic, high-pitched warning.
"His heart rate!" Maria yelled in panic. "If he dies, the bombs in the mountain detonate! It'll cause a catastrophic avalanche that will bury this entire valley!"
Julian rushed to his brother's side, pressing his hands hard against the chest wound, desperately trying to stop the bleeding. "Don't you die on me, Alex! Not yet!"
Alexander looked up at Julian, a bloody, bitter smile on his lips. "You... you always try to save everyone, Julian. It's... pathetic."
"Hold on!" Julian roared.
"Checkmate," Alexander whispered.
His eyes rolled back. His chest stopped moving. The frantic beeping of the biometric monitor flatlined into a long, continuous tone.
Deep inside the mountain above them, massive thermite charges detonated simultaneously. The earth shook so violently it threw Julian off his feet. A deafening roar echoed across the Alps as the entire summit of Mont Tendre imploded in a brilliant flash of orange fire.
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"Run!" Julian screamed, scooping up Leo from Elena.
Millions of tons of rock, concrete, and snow began to cascade down the mountain face directly toward them. The apocalypse had arrived.
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