Chapter 39 - The Burning Bastion

"I am nothing like you," I said through the howling wind, closing the distance between us. "You use people like chess pieces. Richard was a coward, Eleanor was a fool, but you... you're a monster who thinks money buys absolution."

Victor let out a cold, vicious laugh. Suddenly, his arm whipped toward me, the muzzle of his ceramic pistol aligning directly with my forehead.

"Maya, down!" Liam lunged.

*BANG!*

The muzzle flash cut through the torrential rain.

A figure slammed into me from the side, knocking me violently against the wet steel deck. The bullet tore through the air where my head had been half a second prior.

I hit the deck hard, rolling over in the rain.

Eleanor was lying beside me, clutching her left shoulder. Blood was soaking through her torn silk blouse, bright crimson against the gray steel.

"Eleanor!" I gasped, scrambling toward her, pressing both hands against the wound to stem the bleeding.

"I... I owed you one, little sister," Eleanor gasped through clenched teeth, her face twisted in agonizing pain, but for the first time in our lives, her eyes held no jealousy, no venom—only raw, desperate remorse.

Before Victor could fire a second round, Liam closed the remaining distance. In a brutal, blinding flash of close-quarters combat, Liam struck Victor’s wrist with the butt of his weapon, sending the ceramic pistol spinning over the railing into the churning ocean below.

Liam grabbed his father by the lapels of his drenched overcoat, slamming him hard against the perimeter netting.

The helicopter above realized the mission was compromised; the pilot banked sharply away, climbing into the storm clouds and abandoning Victor to his fate.

Victor gasped for breath, his eyes wild as he stared up at his son. "Liam... Liam, please. I'm your father. We can negotiate. We have billions—"

Liam reached down and ripped the silver quantum drive from Victor's trembling fingers.

"The negotiation ended the day you threatened Maya," Liam whispered coldly.

With a swift, calculated strike, Liam brought his fist down, knocking Victor unconscious onto the steel deck. Sarah and her operatives swarmed the helipad a second later, securing Victor in heavy zip-ties and hoisting Eleanor onto a medical stretcher.

"Extraction boat is in position at the northern slipway!" Sarah shouted over the roar of the wind. "We set the scuttling charges in the fuel reserves! This rig sinks in five minutes!"

Liam scooped me up from the wet deck, pulling me tightly against his chest for a brief, breathless second. "Are you alright?"

I looked at Eleanor on the stretcher, then at Liam. "Get us off this rock."

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We raced down the emergency stairs toward the lower slipway just as the first underwater explosive charge detonated with a low, rumbling shudder that shook the entire platform to its core.

***