Chapter 17 - VICTORIA'S FINAL PLAYThe ground vanished beneath a tidal wave of destruction. Julian sprinted through the thigh-deep snow, clutching his son, with Maria and Elena right behind him. Victoria stood frozen, staring at the incoming wall of death.
"Victoria, move!" Julian yelled back at her.
She looked at him, tears streaming down her face. For a brief second, the arrogant, scheming woman was gone, replaced by a tragic realization of the monster she had become. "I killed your empire, Julian," she whispered, her voice lost in the roar of the avalanche. "I don't deserve to run."
"Don't be a fool! Move!"
But Victoria simply turned her back to him, closing her eyes as the massive wall of snow and rock swallowed her whole, erasing her from the mountain.
Julian couldn't stop. The shockwave of the blast hit them, throwing them violently forward. They tumbled into a deep, rocky ravine just as the main brunt of the avalanche roared violently over their heads.
The world went pitch black. The sound was deafening, a grinding, crushing roar that felt like it would shatter their skulls. And then... sudden, terrifying silence.
Julian opened his eyes. It was completely dark. The air was thick with icy dust. He shifted his body. He was trapped in a small pocket of space beneath a massive fallen boulder that had bridged the ravine, shielding them from the crushing weight of the snow above.
He looked down. Leo was crying loudly, a sound that brought tears of pure relief to Julian's eyes. His son was alive.
"Maria?" Julian called out, his voice hoarse.
"Here," Maria coughed, her flashlight clicking on. The beam cut through the dark, illuminating her bloodied face. She was shielding Elena, who was unconscious but breathing.
They were entombed alive beneath thousands of tons of snow and debris.
Julian checked his encrypted satellite phone. The screen was cracked, but miraculously, it had a faint signal. The reinforced casing had saved it.
He dialed his private security extraction team, the ones he had left on standby in Geneva.
"This is Vance," Julian rasped. "Track my GPS signal. Bring heavy digging equipment. We are buried."
"Copy that, Mr. Vance. We are thirty minutes out."
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Julian hung up, letting his head rest against the cold rock. He looked at Maria, the woman who had fought through hell to protect his family.
"It's over," Julian said quietly.
