Chapter 25 - The Fall of the House of VanceThe darkness that followed was absolute, heavy, and suffocating.
Gideon didn't hesitate. Relying entirely on muscle memory and spatial awareness, he dropped into a tactical roll to the left, firing three rapid suppressed rounds into the structural supports of the catwalk directly beneath Victor Vance’s position.
CRACK-THUMP.
The rusted iron railing sheared away like paper under the impact of the high-caliber rounds. Victor let out a sharp cry of shock as the metal platform gave way beneath him, sending him tumbling twelve feet downward into a massive pile of discarded industrial rubber sheeting.
"Now, Sienna!" Gideon shouted into his comm-link.
From the exterior perimeter, the blinding white beams of three armored tactical vehicles broke through the corrugated tin walls of the warehouse, their sirens screaming into the night air. Federal marshals poured through the breaches in full tactical gear, their laser sights sweeping the room in seconds.
Victor Vance groaned, pinned beneath a twisted mass of iron railing and rubber, his expensive white linen suit stained with black grease and bilge water. As Federal Marshal Miller slapped heavy steel handcuffs onto his wrists, Victor spat a mouthful of blood and glared up at Gideon.
"You think this stops the Ledger?" Victor snarled, his voice cracking with hysteric fury. "The network is decentralized! It runs on a thousand nodes across the globe! You haven't killed the beast, Hail—you've just cut off one head!"
Gideon walked slowly over to where Victor lay, looking down at him with the cold, absolute detachment of a man who had finally closed an account that had been draining his soul for a decade.
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"We didn't need to kill the beast, Victor," Gideon said quietly, his voice dropping into a chilling register. "We just changed the password."
Ren and Nova walked up beside Gideon, their shoulders brushing his sides. They didn't look at Victor Vance at all. They turned away, walking back toward the armored sedan hand-in-hand, their steps steady, light, and utterly unburdened by the ghosts of their past.
