Chapter 36 - A Father’s Blood
“Don't do it, Daniel!”
The muffled cry didn't come from Mason. It came from the radio speaker pinned to Daniel’s lapel. Arthur’s eyes instantly sharpened.
“You brought wolves to a sheep market,” Arthur said softly. “Pity.”
Arthur’s thumb began to depress the red button.
Time seemed to slow down into microscopic fractions of a second. Daniel didn't reach for the paperwork. He didn't drop to his knees. Instead, driven by an instinct that bypassed every ounce of human self-preservation, Daniel drew his Glock and lunged forward, throwing his entire body toward the chair where his son was tied.
*BANG!*
Arthur fired a concealed automatic pistol from his coat pocket. The round struck Daniel in the side, tearing through his lower ribs and sending a spray of crimson across the wet steel deck. The blunt force knocked Daniel off course, but the momentum of his body carried him forward.
Daniel crashed onto the hatch, slamming his uninjured right arm around Mason and the chair, shielding the boy with his own flesh and bone just as the pneumatic release hissed beneath them.
The hatch floor fell away.
A blast of superheated air and the deafening roar of roaring engine vents surged upward from the black chasm below. Daniel’s boots slipped over the rim. With his shattered, bleeding shoulder screaming in absolute agony, he dug his fingers into the narrow iron lip of the deck plating, holding the entire weight of Mason and the wooden chair with one hand.
Below them lay a thirty-foot vertical shaft ending in spinning industrial exhaust fans and blinding orange heat.
Mason screamed through the tape, his legs dangling into the abyss, his eyes locked on his father’s face.
“I’ve got you!” Daniel roared through gritted teeth, blood pouring from his side and dripping onto Mason’s forehead. “Mason, look at me! Look at Daddy! I’ve got you! I will NOT let you go!”
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On the deck above, Vanessa let out a shrill laugh of triumph. She ran toward them, raising a heavy iron spanner wrench above Daniel’s clinging fingers.
“Die with him, you pathetic bastard!” she yelled, bringing the iron wrench down with all her might.
