Chapter 34 - Bloodline on the Run
The Audi skidded off the primary highway onto a narrow, gravel-strewn service road winding down toward the roaring gorge of the Fier River. Below us, the swollen waters churned white and violent, fed by three days of unceasing rain.
The second SUV was right on our bumper now. A heavy, sickening crunch resonated through the car as its reinforced steel bull-bar slammed into our rear fender. Maya let out a small, terrified gasp.
"Hold on to me, baby," I whispered fiercely, wrapping both arms around her, shielding her skull with my hands. "I've got you. Nobody is taking you."
Genevieve wrestled with the steering wheel as the car fishtailed over the loose gravel. "The gate is locked, Clara! Heavy chain-link, industrial padlock!"
"Don't slow down!" I shouted, pulling out my secure tablet and entering my master administrator credentials for the Rhône-Alpes Energy Grid—one of the dozens of shell entities I had wrested from Vance’s portfolio. "Julian, keep their heads down!"
Julian opened the sunroof, bracing his shoulders against the frame despite the howling wind, and fired a rapid three-round burst at the radiator of the vehicle behind us. Steam hissed violently from the pursuer's grille, blinding their windshield cameras for a crucial five seconds.
On my screen, the facility map loaded.
*FACILITY: PONT-DE-BEAUVOISIN SUBSTATION 4.*
*STATUS: OFFLINE / FLOOD PROTOCOL STANDBY.*
*OVERRIDE AUTHORIZATION: CLARA STERLING.*
I swiped the icon labeled: **EMERGENCY SPILLWAY PURGE.**
"Five seconds to gate impact!" Genevieve yelled.
"Hang on!"
The heavy electronic gate swung inward automatically just as the Audi bore down on it, missing our side mirrors by inches as Genevieve rocketed through onto the wide, concrete deck of the dam.
The pursuing SUV tore through right behind us, its damaged radiator spewing smoke, its driver realizing too late where we had led them.
In the center of the dam, Genevieve executed a brutal handbrake turn, whipping the Audi around 180 degrees to face our pursuer, coming to a halt on the high concrete apron beside the primary control tower.
The pursuing SUV skidded to a stop fifty yards away, blocking the single-lane exit back to the highway. Four men in tactical black gear and ballistic helmets spilled out, raising automatic rifles.
"Out of the car! Hands visible!" a voice boomed through an external loudspeaker in clipped, German-accented English. "Hand over Asset Zero and the child, Mrs. Fairchild, or this vehicle will be reduced to scrap!"
Julian lowered his weapon, glancing at me. "Your play, Clara."
I looked down at the tablet screen.
*SPILLWAY 1 & 2 RELEASE IN: 3... 2... 1...*
With a sound like the earth cracking open, the four massive hydraulic floodgates beneath the lower roadway groaned and slammed upward.
Millions of gallons of trapped alpine water, pressurized behind seventy feet of concrete, exploded outward into the canyon below—and redirected an auxiliary surge of high-velocity drainage water across the lower service roadway right behind the mercenaries' SUV.
The ground beneath them violently shook. The retaining wall supporting the road behind their vehicle buckled under the tremendous hydraulic force. In a matter of seconds, the entire roadway behind them collapsed into the churning gorge in a colossal avalanche of mud, concrete, and white water.
The mercenaries spun around in horror as their exit vanished into the abyss. They were stranded on an isolated concrete pier, cut off from escape, with water rising rapidly around their boots.
I stepped out of the Audi into the driving rain, refusing the umbrella Julian tried to offer. I stood tall, the wind whipping my trench coat around my legs, the platinum signet ring gleaming under the dam's yellow emergency lights.
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"The French Gendarmerie tactical unit was dispatched five minutes ago," I announced, my voice carrying clearly over the roar of the water. "You have no transport, no backup, and your offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands were frozen forty minutes ago by order of the Geneva Magistrate. Throw your weapons into the gorge, or drown with your contracts."
The lead mercenary stared at me, then at the roaring chasm behind him, and finally dropped his rifle into the rushing torrent below.
