Chapter 19 - Blood Oath
The rain pounded relentlessly on the bridge.
Nathan collapsed beside Grace, pulling her sobbing, bruised body into his arms. Grace clutched his jacket, her face pale, screaming into his chest with the raw, soul-shattering anguish of a mother whose child had just been ripped from her arms.
Marcus limped toward them, holding a handheld military radio, his face grim.
"We tracked the transponder on the helicopter before they jammed the signal," Marcus said, breathing heavily. "They landed on the private helipad of the Cole Medical Research Spire in Midtown Manhattan. Julian has activated the private biometric lockdown for the entire seventy-story complex. He’s declared the building sovereign corporate territory under maritime research charter."
Grace lifted her head. The tears in her eyes dried, replaced by an incandescent, terrifying rage.
She picked up the pinecone lying in the puddle. It was crushed on one side, but still intact. She wiped the soot from it and pressed it into Nathan's bloody palm.
"We aren't going to the police," Grace whispered, her voice chillingly devoid of fear. "We aren't going to the courts."
Nathan looked at the pinecone, then up into Grace's eyes. The pain in his leg, his dislocated shoulder, the crushing weight of the world—all of it dissolved into pure, concentrated vengeance.
"He wants a war," Nathan said, snapping his dislocated shoulder back into place against the bumper of the ruined vehicle with a sickening crunch, not even flinching. "I am going to give him an apocalypse."
Nathan pulled out his satellite phone and dialed a black-market number he had sworn never to call again—the private line of the Vanguard Private Tactical Syndicate, a private army he had funded during his overseas maritime security days.
"Commander Vance," a gravelly voice answered after one ring.
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"This is Nathan Cole," Nathan said, standing to his full, towering height in the storm. "Mobilize every asset on the Eastern Seaboard. Heavy ordnance. EMP capabilities. Blackout protocol for Midtown Manhattan. I'm going to tear Cole Tower down to its foundation."
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