Three-year-old Owen was shoved into the deep koi pond even though Celeste knew he could not swim. / Chapter 35 / 56

Chapter 35 - The Extraction of the Cipher

Arthur tried to run.

He grabbed the ruggedized terminal from the deployment table, tucking it under his arm as he bolted toward the tree line. But he barely made it ten paces before Matteo, lunging from the brush with a jagged pine branch, slammed it across Arthur’s knees.

Arthur hit the wet earth with a howl of agony, the heavy terminal tumbling from his grasp and landing heavily in the mud.

"You arrogant bastard," Matteo wheezed, standing over his brother, chest heaving with pain from his cracked ribs. "You were going to let me burn in that vault."

"We are Pendeltons!" Arthur screamed from the ground, clutching his shattered kneecap. "We don't negotiate with the help! We rule them!"

Vance appeared behind Matteo, kicking the fallen terminal onto its side and leveling his rifle at Arthur’s head. "Shut up."

Valentina dragged Celeste through the dirt by her hair, tossing her down beside Arthur like a bag of discarded refuse. Celeste was bruised, bleeding from her mouth, her designer clothes shredded and soaked in muddy runoff.

Vance popped the latches on the terminal, powering up the display. The screen flashed with biometric security prompts:

**[AEGIS PROTOCOL: STABILIZATION CIPHER]**

**[AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED: DUAL BIOMETRIC RETINAL SCAN]**

"You're too late," Arthur spat, blood bubbling between his teeth as he laughed bitterly. "The cipher requires both Celeste's and my live authorization to decrypt the stabilization sequence. If you shoot us, the key deletes itself permanently. The boy's brain will be fried within the hour."

Valentina stepped forward, her combat knife slipping silently from its sheath at her hip. The cold steel gleamed under the gray morning sky.

She grabbed Arthur by the back of his hair, dragging his face inches from the scanner lens, and pressed the flat of the blade against his eyelid.

"Arthur," Valentina whispered in his ear, her tone completely level, completely detached from mercy. "You have two eyes. You only need one of them to authorize this scan. Decrypt it now, or I swear to you, I will carve the first one out just to prove I don't care."

Arthur stared into Valentina's eyes. In them, he saw no bluff, no hesitation, and no human restraint. He saw a mother who had watched a monster try to murder her child.

"Do it, Celeste," Arthur whimpered, his bladder letting go, soaking his trousers. "Do it! Authorize the scan!"

Celeste looked up from the mud, shivering, broken, her empire crumbling around her in the mountain dirt. With trembling hands, she leaned over the console.

**[BIOMETRIC RECOGNITION CONFIRMED: USER - PENDELTON, ARTHUR]**

**[BIOMETRIC RECOGNITION CONFIRMED: USER - PENDELTON, CELESTE]**