The Boy Who Walked Toward the Gun

Marcus slowly lowered his pistol to the floor and kicked it away.

"Smart man," Sterling said, stepping forward while his mercenaries kept their rifles trained on Marcus’s forehead. "You always were predictable, Hale. Six years ago, you threw away your life for Abigail Cole. And now, you walk right into my basement like a lamb to the slaughter."

"Let the boy go, Sterling," Marcus said, his voice deadly calm. "You're finished. Kane's confession is broadcast nationwide. The State Police are at your front gate right now."

Sterling laughed, a shrill, manic sound. "The State Police? By the time those bureaucrats breach my perimeter with their precious warrants, this entire basement will be an ash heap. I have a helicopter waiting on the south helipad and forty million dollars in bearer bonds ready to board a flight to a non-extradition country."

Sterling grabbed Ethan by the arm, dragging him toward the vault door.

"You gave me the second half of the key, you little fool," Sterling sneered.

Sterling leaned his face into the biometric scanner. A red laser swept across his right retina.

*BEEP.*

*VOICE PROMPT: "PRIMARY BIOMETRIC CONFIRMED. ACCESS GRANTED."*

With a heavy hydraulic hiss, the six-ton vault door unlocked, slowly swinging outward to reveal the glowing server room inside. Towering racks of black computer servers were humming under neon blue LEDs, while red thermite canisters mounted on the ceiling flashed with warning lights.

**PURGE SEQUENCE: 04:15... 04:14...**

"Move inside!" Sterling barked, shoving Ethan through the door. He turned to his lead mercenary. "Shoot Hale. Leave his body in the corridor to burn."

"No!" Ethan screamed.

In that split second, Ethan dropped his weight, stomping down hard onto Sterling's Italian leather shoe with the heavy heel of his sneaker. At the same moment, Ethan drove his elbow backward into Sterling's groin.

Sterling howled in agony, dropping his nickel-plated pistol.

Marcus didn't wait. He lunged at the nearest mercenary, grabbing the barrel of the assault rifle and driving his knee into the man’s solar plexus. Marcus disarmed the guard, spun him into the line of fire of the second mercenary, and fired a three-round burst that neutralized both guards instantly.

The third and fourth mercenaries opened fire, bullets ricocheting wildly off the steel blast walls.

Marcus tackled Ethan, rolling them both inside the vault room just as Marcus reached out and hit the emergency manual lockdown lever on the inside wall.

The massive steel blast door slammed shut with a deafening thud, sealing Marcus, Ethan, and an injured, screaming Senator Sterling inside the vault.

Outside, the mercenaries banged fruitlessly against six inches of reinforced titanium.