Chapter 37 - The Unbroken Oath
"Claire! The pad is giving way! Jump! JUMP!" Marcus’s scream tore through her headset.
The entire southern corner of the penthouse roof groaned like a dying beast. A colossal fireball erupted from the floor below, blowing out thirty feet of structural concrete. The pad tilted violently at a twenty-degree angle, cascading burning debris and heavy air-conditioning units down eighty stories into the streets below.
Claire didn't hesitate. She grabbed the black ledger hard drive, locked it into her vest, and sprinted up the tilting, disintegrating concrete pad.
With a final, desperate burst of speed, she launched herself into the empty air above Manhattan.
For two terrifying seconds, she was suspended between the burning skyscraper and the stormy abyss. Rain lashed her face. Thunder cracked directly overhead.
Then, strong hands caught her.
Marcus Vance and the Delta crew chief grabbed the straps of Claire’s vest with bone-crushing strength, hauling her over the lip of the Black Hawk's cabin floor just as the entire roof of the Vance Holdings tower collapsed inward in a monstrous plume of orange flame and black smoke.
The pilot banked the helicopter violently hard to the left, pulling away from the rising thermal column.
Inside the cabin, Claire collapsed against the aluminum bulkhead, chest heaving, soaking wet, covered in soot, blood, and rain.
A tiny pair of arms instantly wrapped around her waist.
Maya buried her face into Claire’s side, sobbing violently. "Aunt Claire! You came back! You promised and you came back!"
Claire wrapped her arm around the little girl, pulling her tight against her chest, kissing the top of her wet hair. "I promised you, baby. I never break a promise."
Across the cabin, Aunt Evelyn was weeping softly, holding a blanket around her shoulders, while Marcus Vance leaned against the opposite door, looking at the burning skyline of Manhattan recede into the storm.
"Pentagon Command is on the horn, Claire," Marcus said, his voice heavy with awe and exhaustion, passing her a military tactical headset. "General Morrison has taken command of JSOC. The White House is in total lockdown. Vance’s faction is collapsing like a house of cards. They want to know your status."
Claire took the headset. She slipped it over her ear.
"This is Captain Claire Walker," she said, her voice steady, cold, and commanding. "The target is eliminated. Director Julian Vance is dead. The Obsidian ledger is in my custody. And Ethan's family is secure."
There was a long silence on the frequency. Then, the gravelly, battle-hardened voice of General Morrison came through the line:
"Captain Walker... on behalf of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President of the United States... welcome home, One-Eighty-Seven. Clear air corridors are established straight to Walter Reed Military Medical Center. Bring your brother in."
Claire lowered the headset. She looked toward the medical litter at the center of the cabin.
May you like
Ethan was awake.
***
