Chapter 83 - The Torrent at Gate Four
The sharp cracks of Clara’s submachine gun echoed deafeningly in the narrow concrete tunnel. Two of the mercenaries collapsed instantly, while the third lunged sideways behind a steel pillar, returning fire with wild bursts that gouged chunks of cement from the walls.
I slid low across the wet floor, coming up beside a row of heavy coolant pipes. Pulling my pistol, I waited for the rhythm of his fire to pause. Three beats, a click as his bolt locked back. I leaned out and fired twice through the narrow gap between the conduits. The mercenary crumpled, his weapon clattering into the drainage channel below the walkway.
"Clear!" I shouted, waving Clara forward.
We reached the heavy blast hatch marked *TURBINE BAY 4 - EMERGENCY OVERFLOW*. The manual lever had been chained, but a thermite charge had already eaten through the lock, glowing cherry red in the shadows. Clara shoved the heavy wheel with her shoulder, and together we forced the hatch open.
A wall of frigid mist slammed into our faces.
The turbine bay was a colossal cavern carved into the living rock of the cliffside. Far below, massive bronze turbines spun with terrifying speed, churning the diverted river into foaming white fury. Suspended fifty feet above the churning abyss was a metal catwalk leading to the funicular track platform. And there, strapped to the side of a rusted industrial lift cage hovering directly over the intake flume, was a small canvas duffel bag.
"Lily!" Clara cried over the deafening roar of the waters.
A faint, muffled cry answered from the duffel. Lily was inside, alive, but the cable holding the lift cage was groaning under sudden strain. Standing on the far platform, his white suit spattered with grime and oil, was Marcus Vane. In his left arm, he carried the silver-wrapped infant; in his right hand, he held a handheld detonator wired directly to the suspension cables of Lily’s cage.
"Welcome to the end of the line, Julian!" Marcus screamed, his voice barely cutting through the roar of the water. "You wanted to break the dynasty! You wanted to tear down what your ancestors built with their blood and intellect!"
"Marcus, she's your granddaughter!" I roared, stepping onto the vibration-racked catwalk, my weapon trained on his chest. "Let the cage down! Take me instead!"
"Sentimentality! Disgusting, pathetic weakness!" Marcus spat. "She possesses nothing of the Vane brilliance! She is an error in the ledger, a parasite on our legacy! The child in my arms will be raised in the Argentine sanctuaries, far from your poisoned morality. Press one step forward, and I sever the winch!"
Clara moved like a phantom behind me, creeping along the outer shadow of the conduit pipes toward the manual brake lever on the platform wall.
"Look around you, Father!" I yelled, keeping his gaze locked on mine. "The mainframe is dead! The Swiss authorities have the coordinates from the Zurich ledger! You have nowhere to run! You’re drowning in your own vanity!"
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"Then we drown together," Marcus snarled, his thumb coming down on the red toggle.
***
