Chapter 9 - Storming the Bastion
Adrian didn't fall.
He had moved with a speed that defied human reaction,
taking the bullet in his shoulder as he tackled Marcus to the ground.
The museum erupted into a true war zone.
I didn't run this time.
I pulled the small pistol Adrian had given me and fired.
The bullet hit Marcus in the chest,
knocking him back against a marble pedestal.
He looked at me with shock,
the light fading from his eyes.
"For my mother,"
I whispered.
Adrian was back on his feet,
blood soaking his white shirt,
but he was still standing.
"Lena,
listen to me,"
he shouted over the noise.
"The guards aren't here for me,"
"they’re here for the man who actually leads the Council."
"My father isn't dead."
The realization hit me like a physical weight.
The photograph,
the scratched-out face,
the search...
It wasn't just about my mother.
It was about the secret she carried about the Viscari patriarch.
A man stepped out from the shadows of the Egyptian wing,
his hair white,
his eyes the same silver as Adrian’s.
"Hello,
Lena,"
the old man said,
his voice like grinding gravel.
"You look just like Elara before the fire."
"You killed her,"
I said,
my voice steady despite the chaos.
"I removed a threat,"
he corrected,
walking toward us.
"And now,"
"you will give me the chips,"
"or Adrian dies."
He held a detonator in his hand,
linked to the explosives his men had planted around the museum.
Adrian looked at me,
a silent plea in his eyes.
"Don't do it,"
he mouthed.
I looked at the chips in my hand,
the key to my mother's legacy.
Then I looked at the man I had come to love,
despite the lies and the blood.
"I'm not my mother,"
I said,
looking the old man in the eye.
"I don't hide."
I threw the chips onto the floor and crushed them under my heel.
"The data is already live,"
I lied,
the bluff of a lifetime.
"It went to the FBI ten minutes ago."
The old man’s face contorted in rage,
and he pressed the button.
Nothing happened.
Adrian smiled,
blood dripping from his lip.
"I already swapped the frequencies,
May you like
Father."
"You're finished."
