Chapter 14 - The Mask of the Protector
"Answer me!" Emily shouted, her voice ricocheting off the stone walls of the dead. "You were there! You cleared the room! You told me it was aconite—how did you know the exact synthetic compound before the toxicology report even loaded on Dr. Chen’s tablet?!"
Daniel slowly lowered his weapon, his jaw clenched so tightly the muscles jumped beneath the skin. "Because I was ordered to manufacture it six months ago, Emily. By Thomas Sterling himself."
The revelation hit her like a physical blow. Emily stumbled back against the cold stone of her grandfather's crypt, her mind racing through the horrific timeline.
"You... you worked for him?" she whispered, tears of shock pricking her eyes. "Everything was a lie? The night on the rooftop? The rescue? The board meeting?"
"The night on the rooftop was real," Daniel said, his voice raw with suppressed emotion as he took a cautious step toward her, his open hand outstretched in a plea. "I was Thomas's private fixer. When he realized that Victoria Drake and her consortium were moving in to liquidate his assets and stage his 'suicide,' he hid you. He put you in that diner. He made sure you were poor, miserable, and invisible because invisible people don't get car-bombed in broad daylight."
"He let my brother suffer leukemia in a squalid apartment!" Emily screamed, tears spilling hot and angry down her cheeks. "He let us starve!"
"Because the moment he transferred a single dollar to your mother’s accounts, Victoria’s death squads would have traced it!" Daniel yelled back, the professional soldier finally breaking under the weight of his guilt. "I kept the antidote in my pocket tonight because I knew they would try to use Thomas's old stock on Leo! I didn't poison him, Emily—I was the only reason his heart didn't stop before Dr. Chen pushed that syringe!"
Suddenly, the heavy iron gate at the top of the stairs slammed shut with a deafening crash that shook the dust from the vaulted ceiling.
A cold, mocking laugh drifted down through the stone air shafts.
"Oh, what a touching domestic melodrama," purred an amplified voice from the shadows above. "The loyal dog confessing his sins to the stray mongrel."
Red laser dots danced across the wet stone walls, converging instantly on Daniel’s chest and Emily’s forehead.
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"Daniel," Emily whispered, freezing in place.
"Down!" Daniel roared, tackling her to the stone floor just as the crypt erupted in a barrage of silenced submachine gun fire. Marble chips sprayed through the air like shrapnel, carving into Daniel’s back as he shielded Emily beneath his entire body.
