CHAPTER 13
969 Words
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*Chapter 13 - Cornered*
Victor Vex Sr. did not like losing.
He stood in the server room on floor 48 and stared at the black screens.
Wiped. Dead.
`NIGHTFALL: ACCESS DENIED`
`ALL DATA CORRUPTED`
14 years of work. Gone.
Behind him, Director Hayes was shouting into his radio. “Lock down the city! Every exit! Every train!”
“Shut up,” Victor said quietly.
Hayes stopped.
Victor turned. Slowly. His suit was perfect. His tie was straight.
But his hands were shaking.
“My son,” he said. “My daughter. And a girl with a USB.”
He smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile. “They just cost me 40 billion pounds.”
No one spoke.
Victor walked to the window. Looked out over London.
Lights. Still on. For now.
Because of _them_.
“Get me Vant,” he said.
3 men appeared in the doorway. Black suits. No names.
“Find them,” Victor said. “Alive. I want to look them in the eye before the world does.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And put a bounty on them. 5 million. Public.” He turned back to the window. “Let the city hunt them for me.”
---
*1 Hour Later. Safehouse. South London.*
We were breathing hard.
The helicopter dropped us on the roof of an abandoned warehouse. Lila killed the engine.
“We have maybe 2 hours before they track the chopper,” she said, jumping out. “Move.”
We ran down 8 flights of stairs. Into the basement.
Lila locked the door. Slid down it. “Okay. So. That went well.”
Damian was pacing. “He’s going to come for us. Harder now.”
“He already is,” I said. I pulled out my phone.
News alert.
`BREAKING: 5 MILLION POUND BOUNTY FOR CYBERTERRORISTS`
`DAMIAN VEX AND AVA REYES WANTED`
`CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS`
My stomach dropped. “5 million.”
“They’ll sell us for 5 million,” Damian said. He laughed, bitter. “My dad really hates me.”
Lila pulled up another screen. “It’s worse. He’s calling it ‘protecting London’. Saying we’re terrorists who tried to crash the grid.”
“They’ll believe him,” I whispered.
“They might,” Lila said. “Unless we leak it first.”
She pulled out Ria’s USB. The one with the Nightfall files.
“We have the proof,” she said. “We just need to get it out.”
Damian stopped pacing. “Where?”
Lila grinned. “The one place he can’t touch. Live TV.”
---
*VexCorp Tower. 1 Hour Later.*
Victor was in his office. Whiskey in hand. Not drinking it.
Hayes stood across from him. “Sir, we have eyes on South London. Thermal. Might be them.”
“Good.” Victor set the glass down. “Don’t kill them. Not yet.”
“Sir?”
“I want them to watch.” He turned on the TV. News.
His own face was on screen.
`VEXCORP CEO ADDRESSES NATION`
`“WE WERE ATTACKED. BUT LONDON IS SAFE.”`
He picked up the remote. Turned the volume up.
On screen, Victor looked sad. Tired. Fatherly.
“My son, Damian, has been manipulated. By terrorists. By a woman named Ava Reyes.”
He held up a photo of us from Paris. Candid. Damian’s hand on my back.
“She is dangerous. They are dangerous. But we will find them.”
He paused. Looked directly into the camera.
“And Damian. If you’re watching. Come home. Before it’s too late.”
He turned the TV off.
“Send that to every channel,” he said. “And leak the photo. Let them see who she is.”
Hayes nodded. “And the bounty, sir?”
“Make it 10 million.”
---
*Safehouse.*
The TV was on. We watched it.
Damian didn’t move when his dad called him manipulated.
He didn’t move when he showed the photo.
He only moved when Victor said my name.
“Turn it off,” he said quietly.
Lila did.
“They’re going to come,” Damian said. “Every bounty hunter. Every cop. Every person who wants 10 million.”
“Then we don’t wait,” I said. “We leak it. Now.”
Lila was already typing. “I’m uploading Nightfall to 12 news sites. 50 mirrors. It’ll go live in 10 minutes.”
Damian looked at me. “Eliza. If we do this, there’s no going back. He’ll never stop.”
“I know.”
“If we do this, we have to finish him. Today.”
“I know.”
He nodded. Then he did something unexpected.
He pulled me into his lap. Right there on the floor.
“I’m scared,” he whispered into my hair. “Not of him. Of this. Of losing you in the next 2 hours.”
“You won’t,” I said. I wrapped my arms around him. “We leak it. We go public. We let the world see him.”
“And then?”
“And then we run. Together. Somewhere he can’t find us.”
He pulled back. Looked at me. “You’d do that? Give up everything? For me?”
“I already did,” I said. “In Paris.”
He kissed me.
Not for luck. Not desperate.
Just real.
Lila cleared her throat. “10 minutes. Then we move.”
We pulled apart.
Damian stood. “Okay. Plan. We leak it. We draw him out. And when he comes, we end it.”
“End it how?” Lila asked.
Damian’s eyes were cold. “The same way he tried to end London.”
Outside, we could hear sirens.
Getting closer.
Cornered.
But not beaten.
Not yet.
---
- Writer
