Chapter 14 - The Hudson Valley Siege
Before the guards could clear their weapons, Daniel moved.
His reaction was blindingly fast. He seized the wrist of the nearest guard, twisting it outward with a sickening pop that sent the man’s Glock tumbling to the carpet. Daniel caught the weapon mid-air, drove his elbow into the guard’s solar plexus, and leveled the barrel directly between the eyes of the second guard before the man could even thumb off his safety.
"Drop it," Daniel whispered.
The second guard froze, his eyes darting to Detective Miller, who had already unholstered his own weapon.
"Hands on your head! Both of you! Down on the floor!" Miller shouted, kicking the dropped firearm away. Uniformed officers swarmed the two turncoats, pinning them violently to the floor.
"They were on my personal payroll for six years," Daniel muttered, his pulse hammering in his ears. "Eleanor bought them out before the wedding even started."
"Daniel, your phone," Judith pointed out urgently.
The screen of Daniel's mobile device flickered. The Sterling Global logo was replaced by a red warning banner: **CREDENTIALS REVOKED BY TRUSTEE ELEANOR STERLING. ALL ASSETS SUSPENDED PENDING JUDICIAL REVIEW.**
"She did it," Emily cried, tears spilling over her lashes. "She locked you out of the company. Daniel, she's taking everything Dad built."
"She thinks she did," Daniel said, his eyes blazing with an icy fire. He turned to Miller. "Detective, take Julian Croft, Vanessa, and Margaret Vance into federal custody under charges of corporate espionage, conspiracy to commit fraud, and treasonous cyber warfare. Judith, I need that raw footage uploaded to a decentralized cloud server right now. Don't let the local broadcast stations get it—feed it directly to Jonathan Hayes at the Federal Trade Commission."
"Consider it done," Judith replied, fingers flying across her mobile editing console. "Where are you going?"
"To the Hudson Valley," Daniel said, cocking the Glock and tucking it into his waistband under his ruined tuxedo.
"Daniel, you can't go alone!" Emily grabbed his arm, her grip desperate. "She said you aren't Dad's biological son! If that covenant is real, the estate's automated defense systems won't recognize you! It's suicide!"
Daniel looked down at Emily, his expression softening for only a fraction of a second. He placed a hand over hers. "Arthur raised me to protect this family. Blood didn't make me your brother, Emily. The promise I made to Dad on his deathbed did. I don't care what legal papers Eleanor stole from that vault. She insulted my sister, she corrupted my wedding, and she tried to burn our name to the ground."
"I'm coming with you," Emily declared, wiping her tears with the sleeve of her coat. Her voice was no longer that of a trembling victim; a fierce resolve had ignited within her. "You need a biological Sterling to override the secondary lockdown protocols. You can't get past the outer courtyard without my handprint."
Daniel studied her face. For years, he had shielded her from the brutal realities of high finance and corporate warfare. But looking at her now, standing tall amidst the ruins of his wedding, he realized the little girl was gone.
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"Get your coat," Daniel told her. "We take the subterranean garage exit. The paparazzi and police outside will block Fifth Avenue, but Arthur built a private subterranean egress beneath the hotel leading to 58th Street."
Five minutes later, the iron garage gate beneath the St. Regis hissed open. A matte-black, bulletproof Rezvani Tank—a vehicle Daniel kept stationed in Manhattan for emergency extractions—roared out into the rainy night, its supercharged V8 engine screaming as Daniel slammed the accelerator toward the northbound highway.
