Chapter 5 - The Hostage High
The sirens were screaming, but not for a fire.
At 2:15 PM, Westbridge High School was placed on total, dark-site lockdown.
Leo stood on the roof of the three-story building opposite the school, wearing a dark jacket Clara had given him. Beside him stood Clara, holding a high-powered tactical scanner, while Arthur leaned against the brick ledge, his face lined with exhaustion and regret.
"They've taken the entire senior class into the gymnasium," Clara reported, squinting through her binoculars. "Eighteen heavy tactical mercenaries. High-caliber automatic weapons, flash-bangs, and thermal breaching charges. This isn't a kidnapping, Leo. It's a siege."
Leo stared down at the school where, just yesterday, he had been worrying about his AP Chemistry test and whether a girl named Maya would sit next to him at lunch.
Now, Maya was down there. His best friend Sam was down there. Held at gunpoint because of his blood.
"Richard wants to draw you out," Arthur said, his tone grim. "He knows your morality is your biggest weakness. He knows you won't let those kids die."
"It's not a weakness," Leo snapped, turning to look at his grandfather. "It's the only thing keeping me from becoming like you or him."
Arthur flinched, looking away, unable to meet Leo's eyes.
"What's the plan, Clara?" Leo asked.
"There is no plan that gets you in there alive without surrendering," Clara said flatly. "If we push through the doors, they start executing students. Richard gave a strict deadline: You walk through the gymnasium doors in ten minutes, or he kills one student every sixty seconds."
Leo looked at his hands. He made a fist. He could feel the pulse beneath his skin—the terrifying, miraculous energy waiting to explode.
"They want the gene," Leo whispered. "They want me alive."
"Leo, no," Arthur warned, stepping forward. "You don't know what they will do to you once you're in that room. They have bio-dampening restraints. If they inject you with a neuro-blocker, your regeneration won't work!"
"Then I won't let them inject me," Leo said.
Before Arthur or Clara could stop him, Leo backed up three steps, sprinted across the roof, and leapt off the edge.
He cleared the forty-foot gap between the buildings, crashing through the skylight of the high school gymnasium in a shower of reinforced glass and aluminum framing.
BOOM!
Leo landed in the center of the basketball court, dust and glass raining down around him.
The screams of two hundred terrified students echoed through the cavernous room. Bound in zip-ties on the bleachers, the teenagers cowered as eighteen mercenary rifles immediately swung around, aiming squarely at the crater in the middle of the floor.
Standing on the center court line, wearing a tactical vest over his pristine suit, was Richard Sterling.
Beside Richard, held at gunpoint by a towering mercenary, was Maya—her face wet with tears, her hands trembling violently.
"Leo!" Maya sobbed. "What... what is happening?!"
"Stay quiet, Maya. It's going to be okay," Leo said, his voice terrifyingly calm as he pulled himself up out of the debris.
Richard began to clap slowly, his palms echoing in the tense silence of the gym. "Dramatic entrance, Leo. Very cinematic. I see the cellular density enhancement gives you remarkable kinetic absorption."
"Let them go, Richard," Leo said, walking slowly toward the center court. "You have me. Let the kids walk."
"Oh, I will," Richard smiled, drawing a silver syringe from his pocket. The syringe contained a dark, viscous black liquid. "As soon as you step up to this line and allow me to administer the containment serum. It will harmlessly neutralize your neurological impulses for twenty-four hours."
"Leo, don't!" Sam yelled from the bleachers. A guard hit Sam with the butt of a rifle, dropping him to the floor.
Leo's eyes flashed with that iridescent golden hue for a split second. "Touch him again and I tear this room apart."
Richard chuckled. "You think you're a hero now, Leo? You think having special blood makes you a god? You're a boy. A boy who doesn't even know who he is."
Richard raised his hand, signaling the mercenary holding Maya. The mercenary pulled back the slide of his handgun, pressing the barrel directly against Maya’s temple.
"The needle, Leo," Richard said, his tone leaving no room for negotiation. "Or her brain on the hardwood. You have three seconds."
"One."
Leo took a step forward.
"Two."
Leo reached out his arm, rolling up his sleeve. "Fine. Just don't hurt her."
Richard stepped up, a triumphant smirk stretching across his face. He pressed the cold tip of the syringe against the vein in Leo’s forearm. "You were always such a good boy, Leo. So compliant."
Richard plunged the needle into Leo's arm.
The dark fluid shot into Leo’s bloodstream. Instantly, Leo gasped. His vision blurred, his knees buckled, and he fell to his hands and knees on the polished floor. The golden warmth in his veins was suddenly extinguished, replaced by a freezing, paralyzed numbness spreading through his body.
"It's over," Richard announced to his men, turning his back on Leo. "Secure the target. Liquidate the witnesses."
The mercenaries raised their weapons toward the bleachers, aiming at the two hundred terrified students.
"No..." Leo rasped, flat on his chest, unable to move a muscle. "You... you promised..."
"I lied," Richard sneered, looking down at Leo with disgust. "Did you really learn nothing from your grandfather?"
The lead mercenary placed his finger on the trigger, aimed at Maya.
CLICK.
Suddenly, the massive double doors of the gymnasium didn't just open—they were blown off their hinges by a massive breacher charge.
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Through the fire and smoke stepped Arthur Vance, carrying a heavy-caliber automated shotgun, flanked by Clara firing dual suppressed submachine guns.
"GET AWAY FROM MY GRANDSON!" Arthur roared.
