Chapter 16 - The Traitor Unmasked
Victoria stepped into the room from the shadows behind Sterling, her black trench coat glistening with rain and the blood of two perimeter infiltrators she had eliminated in the stairwell. Seeing Mia holding the smoking weapon with absolute composure, a flicker of fierce, maternal pride flashed in Victoria's eyes.
"Marcus is alive," Victoria said calmly, kicking Sterling's fallen syringe across the floor. "He took a shoulder graze. The perimeter is being re-secured by our offshore tactical reserves."
She bent down, grabbing Sterling by the collar of his designer shirt, hauling him upward until his terrified face was inches from hers. "You were vetted by three intelligence agencies, Sterling. What did Xavier Vance offer you? Ten million? Twenty?"
Sterling spat blood onto the concrete, his face twisted in pain. "He offered me my family’s lives! You don't understand who Xavier is, Victoria! He isn't a businessman. He sits on the board of the sovereign funds that decide which countries get war loans and which get starved! You can't fight him! He's already on the coast!"
"Where?" Victoria demanded, pressing the barrel of her firearm against Sterling’s temple.
"The *Leviathan*," Sterling wept, breaking completely under Victoria's chilling gaze. "His three-hundred-foot mega yacht... anchored five miles off Point Lobos in international waters. He has an extraction helicopter waiting. If I don't signal him in twenty minutes with the child, he’s deploying orbital drone strikes to level this entire cliffside!"
Mia stepped forward, holding the sleeping Aurora against her heart. "Let him wait," she said.
Victoria turned to her daughter, surprised by the chilling tone in Mia’s voice. "Mia?"
"He thinks I’m a helpless vessel he manufactured," Mia said, looking directly into Victoria’s eyes. "He thinks because his blood is in her veins, he owns our future. If we stay here, he levels the compound and hunts us forever. We don't wait for his drones, Mother."
Victoria stared at Mia, seeing not the fragile girl she rescued a year ago, but an iron matriarch reborn in fire. "What are you suggesting?"
May you like
"We don't defend," Mia declared, her voice cold as steel. "We hunt."
***
