Chapter 5 - The Corporate Mastermind
Viral Title: BILLIONAIRE STORMS THE ENEMY’S HEADQUARTERS! THE SHOCKING TRUTH ABOUT THE CAR CRASH REVEALED!Richard didn't hesitate. He caught the fallen rifle, leveled it at the remaining tactical operatives, and fired with the precision of a man who spent his weekends at private military shooting ranges. The high-potency tranquilizer darts hit their marks. Within seconds, the courtyard was clear, the operatives snoring heavily on the grass.
Sirens could be heard in the distance. The real police were finally arriving.
Richard turned to Evelyn, his face grim. "Take the children to my safehouse in Malibu. Thomas will guide you. Nobody enters, nobody leaves."
"Where are you going?" Evelyn asked, holding a shaking Lily close to her.
Richard looked down at Maxwell, whose legs were still glowing with that strange, intense crimson light, his eyes wide with a mixture of fear and newfound power. Richard knelt down, kissing his son’s forehead—something he hadn't done since the crash.
"I’m going to end this," Richard said softly. "For your mother. For both of you."
Two hours later, the glass doors of Vanguard Holdings’ penthouse suite in downtown Los Angeles shattered inward.
Richard Wilson walked through the debris, a heavy tactical shotgun resting on his shoulder, his expensive suit soaked in rain and blood. Victor Vance, a sleek, silver-haired man in his late fifties, sat calmly behind his mahogany desk, swirling a glass of scotch. He didn't look surprised.
"Ah, Richard," Victor smiled, gesturing to the chair across from him. "You always did know how to make an entrance. I assume my recovery team failed?"
"You tried to kill my wife, Victor," Richard said, his voice terrifyingly calm as he leveled the shotgun directly at Victor’s chest. "You stole my daughter. You turned my son into a target. Give me one reason why I shouldn't blow your head off right now."
Victor laughed, a cold, dry sound. "Because if you shoot me, you’ll never get the antidote for your son."
Richard’s hand tightened on the trigger. "What antidote? He’s an amputee, you idiot."
"He’s an amputee because I ordered his legs to be crushed, Richard," Victor said, his eyes gleaming with psychopathic pride. "The car crash wasn't meant to kill Jennifer. It was meant to isolate the children. The neural-adaptive prosthetics you put on him? They aren't yours. Your lead engineer was on my payroll. Those legs contain a biological pathogen that is currently bonding with his spinal cord. It requires a synthetic stabilizer that only Vanguard possesses. Without it, the neural-link will fry his nervous system in forty-eight hours."
Richard felt the room grow cold. His own company... his own engineers... had been turned against him.
"You're lying," Richard growled.
"Am I?" Victor pulled up a holographic display on his desk. It showed Maxwell’s real-time vitals. The crimson light wasn't a superpower—it was a system overload. The graph showed his core body temperature spiking dangerously. $104^\circ\text{F}$ and rising.
"I needed both twins together," Victor explained smoothly. "Their combined DNA acts as the biometric key to unlock the military-grade AI software hidden within those prosthetics. You brought them together today at the school. The software is unlocked. Now, bring me both children, hand over Wilson Robotics, and I will give you the stabilizer that saves your boy's life."
Richard’s mind raced. He looked at the shotgun in his hand. If he killed Victor, the data for the stabilizer would be lost forever. If he surrendered, his children would become lab rats.
Suddenly, Victor’s phone buzzed. He picked it up, expecting a status report from his security team.
May you like
Instead, a child’s voice came through the high-security speaker system. It was Maxwell.
The Hook: "Hi, Mr. Vance," Maxwell's voice echoed through the penthouse, sounding completely calm. "My dad told me to always have a backup plan. Lily and I are currently standing in your main server room downstairs... and she’s not wearing any shoes."
