Chapter 7 - The 80th Floor Massacre
VIRAL HOOK: "A father, a stepmother, and a lying husband in one room. Only one of them was walking out alive!"
BOOM!
Daniel dropped the flashbang grenade from the ceiling hatch, blinding Arthur and Evelyn instantly.
Dropping down like a bird of prey, Daniel tackled Arthur to the ground, disarming the shotgun. Evelyn screamed, firing her pistol wildly into the dark room. A bullet grazed Daniel’s shoulder, but he spun, sweeping her legs out from under her, kicking her weapon across the marble floor.
In the center of the luxurious penthouse, tied to a heavy steel pillar, was Sarah.
"Daniel!" Sarah screamed, but her voice wasn't filled with hope—it was filled with utter horror and disgust. "Get away from me! You monster! You’re Arthur’s son!"
Daniel froze for a fraction of a second, his heart plunging into dark water once again. He looked at Sarah’s eyes—eyes that now looked at him with pure hatred.
"Sarah..." Daniel whispered. "She told you."
Arthur crawled backward against the glass wall of the skyscraper, coughing, laughing wildly through his bloody teeth. "Look at us! The happy family reunited on the 80th floor! Yes, Daniel! Tell her! Tell her how I recruited you when you were starving in that military orphanage! Tell her how I made you!"
"I am NOT like you!" Daniel roared, turning his gun on Arthur. "I rejected your money five years ago! I took the FBI assignment because I wanted to put you in a cage for what you did to my mother!"
Sarah stared at Daniel, confusion and agony warring inside her soul.
"Is it true?" Sarah sobbed. "You are his son?"
"Yes," Daniel said softly, tears flowing down his face. "I am his son. But my mission wasn't to help him steal your money, Sarah. My mission was to protect you from him! I didn't know I would fall in love with you. I didn't know we would have Lily. But every second I spent with you was the only real part of my entire miserable life!"
"How touching!" Evelyn suddenly shrieked, scrambling to her feet near the central server terminal.
She slammed her hand down on a red override button on the main computer console!
BIOMETRIC UPLOAD COMPLETE. 4.0 BILLION TRANSFER INITIATED. SELF-DESTRUCT THERMITE TIMERS ACTIVATED: 60 SECONDS.
Alarm sirens began to blare throughout the skyscraper. Bright red strobe lights flashed violently. Floor-to-ceiling glass windows cracked under the thermal expansion as thermite charges began burning through the structural steel pillars below them!
"If I can't have the money, NO ONE CAN!" Evelyn screamed, pulling a detonator switch from her belt!
Arthur, realizing Evelyn had just destroyed his life's work, flew into a senile rage. "You stupid bitch!" Arthur yelled, drawing a hidden derringer pistol and firing point-blank into Evelyn’s chest!
Evelyn collapsed onto the control console, dead instantly.
"The key, Sarah!" Arthur roared, turning his weapon toward Sarah, his eyes entirely insane. "Give me the manual bypass key thumb drive, or we all burn together!"
Daniel threw his body between Arthur’s gun and Sarah.
GRAPHIC SHOT.
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A high-caliber bullet tore straight through Daniel’s chest.
Chapter 7 Cliffhanger: Daniel fell to his knees, blood pouring from his chest onto Sarah’s lap. Arthur stepped over his bleeding son, pressing the hot barrel of the gun against Sarah’s forehead with 20 seconds left on the bomb timer!
