Chapter 47 - The Fire on the Tarmac (Flashback & Return)
Before I could press the intercom button, my mind pulled me back to the wet tarmac in Zurich—to the moment the Swiss federal authorities had closed the net around Julian Vance.
That night hadn't ended with a quiet surrender. High-level corruption rarely goes gently into the night.
When the Interpol agents had stepped into the terminal, Julian’s personal security—three private contractors who were paid enough to commit treason—had drawn their sidearms.
The ensuing firefight inside that glass pavilion had been deafening. High-caliber rounds shattered the floor-to-ceiling windows, rain and wind tearing into the luxury lounge as glass rained down like diamond shards. Julian had lunged for the ledger, his aristocratic composure devolving into primal violence.
"Shoot her!" Julian had screamed at Sarah, pointing at me through the hail of gunfire. "Kill her and take the deed!"
Sarah, bleeding from her shoulder, her federal career dead in the water, had stood between me and her father. In that split second of ultimate reckoning, Sarah hadn't fired at me.
She had leveled her weapon directly at Julian's private security detail, firing two double-taps that dropped the contractors before they could acquire a target.
"Run, Riley!" Sarah had screamed over the roar of the storm and the blare of police sirens. "Get to the US Embassy! If you hold the ledger on American soil, he can never touch the land!"
I had sprinted across the tarmac under the screaming Swiss sirens, clutching the black ledger against my chest, diving into the back of an armored embassy transport that had been waiting at the perimeter gate.
Sarah Vance had chosen prison over dynastic loyalty. She had chosen to burn down her father’s empire rather than let him consume another daughter.
And now, standing in the sterile quiet of the Spokane detention center, the echoes of that gunfire faded, replaced by the pathetic rattling of Evelyn’s handcuffs.
I reached out, pressed the red button on the intercom console, and spoke directly into the microphone.
May you like
"Evelyn."
***
