Chapter 22 - THE TICKING HEART: SURGERY UNDER SIEGE
Within ten seconds of the old woman’s death, a high-pitched digital beep emitted from beneath the skin of Lyra’s collarbone. A faint, glowing red light pulsed beneath her flesh, matching her frantically accelerating heartbeat.
Dr. Mercer rushed into the room with a handheld medical scanner, running the sensor over Lyra’s chest. His face turned as white as a sheet.
“It’s a sub-dermal micro-explosive synced to a localized remote server!” Dr. Mercer yelled in panic. “It’s tied to her heart rate! If her pulse spikes past one hundred and eighty beats per minute, or if the external signal is triggered, the micro-charge will detonate inside her thoracic cavity!”
Lyra began to hyperventilate, clutching my dress in absolute terror. “Mama! Am I going to die? The dark lady in Europe said if I ever came here, she would push a red button!”
“You are not going to die, Lyra!” I snapped, my voice ringing with an authority so fierce that even the heavily armed guards stepped back. “Look at me! Look into my eyes!”
I cupped my daughter’s cheeks, keeping my gaze locked on hers while forcing my own breathing into a slow, rhythmic pattern. “You are a Romanov. You are a Vance. You do not die today.”
Suddenly, every screen in the estate war room flickered to life. A woman with cold blue eyes and a cruel, surgical smile appeared on the monitors—Valentina.
“Hello, sister-in-law,” Valentina sneered through the speakers, her voice dripping with venomous amusement. “Do you like my wedding present? Eleven years I raised that little brat, waiting for the perfect moment. You stole my sister’s husband, you reclaimed your throne, but I hold the detonator to your daughter's beating heart.”
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“What do you want, Valentina?” Dante roared into the comms, his fist cracking the glass of the tactical table.
“Total surrender,” Valentina replied coldly. “I want the Romanov assets transferred to my Swiss account by midnight. I want the Vance Syndicate dissolved. And I want Maya to step out onto the terrace and put a bullet through her own head. If you attempt to trace this signal or disarm the chip, I press the button.”
