Chapter 5 - THE CONFESSIONThe cold steel of the scalpel pressed lightly against Marcus Kane’s throat, just enough to draw a single drop of crimson blood that trickled slowly down into his collar. Beneath my grip, I could feel his pulse racing wildly—a frantic, erratic rhythm of pure, unadulterated terror.
For the first time since he had stepped out of his armored SUV, the untouchable corporate titan looked mortal.
"Go ahead," Marcus choked out, his eyes darting frantically toward the dark shadows of the cellar. "Kill me. Do it. But the moment my heart stops, a dead-man’s switch on my server transmits the encrypted location of those children to every bounty hunter and corporate fixer from here to Zurich. You won't just be signing my death warrant; you'll be signing theirs."
I didn't loosen my grip, but my mind raced. Men like Marcus Kane never walked into a trap without a contingency plan. They were cowards wrapped in expensive suits, shielded by layers of insurance policies and digital safety nets.
"You think I'm bluffing?" Marcus sneered, a bloody smirk touching his lips despite the blade at his throat. "Check your encrypted mail server, Doctor. A timed release script is currently counting down from five minutes. If I don't enter my biometric override code by midnight, the files go public. And once those children are flagged in the global database, every ruthless asset-recovery firm in the syndicate will hunt them down until they're back in my custody—or buried under six feet of snow."
"You sick bastard," I muttered, the fury in my chest burning hotter than ever.
"I'm a realist," Marcus whispered, his voice dripping with venomous confidence. "Sarah was weak. She thought love could conquer debt portfolios. She thought she could outsmart me by sewing those papers into Lily’s coat. But she didn't realize that the very people she ran to—you—are your own worst enemies. Your pride, your arrogance, your Savior Complex... it's all a glaring weakness."
Suddenly, a sharp beep echoed from the upper floor, followed by Rosa’s terrified voice screaming over the house intercom.
"Doctor Vance! They’re inside the panic room! Someone bypassed the biometric scanner!"
My heart skipped a beat. Bypassed the biometric scanner? That was impossible. The panic room required my retinal scan and Sarah's genetic key.
"Surprised?" Marcus laughed softly, a wet, rattling sound. "You really think I didn't clone Sarah’s biometric data before she ran? Her thumbprint, her retinal pattern, her voice signature—they're all stored on my corporate network. My second team didn't need to break down the door. They walked right in."
I looked down at the man beneath me, realizing with absolute horror that I had fallen into a distraction. While I had been playing tactical games in the conservatory and the cellar, the real assault team had infiltrated the core of the house where Lily and the two babies were hiding.
"Checkmate, Doctor," Marcus whispered.
With a sudden, violent twist of his body, Marcus slammed his heel down onto my foot and violently threw his weight backward. The unexpected surge of adrenaline broke my grip, sending me stumbling against the wine racks as glass bottles rained down around us.
Marcus scrambled across the stone floor, scooping up his dropped pistol, and sprinted up the spiral staircase toward the ground floor, laughing maniacally as he fled.
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I picked myself up off the floor, wiping the blood from my brow, and gripped the tactical shotgun with white-knuckled intensity.
"You want to play chess, Marcus?" I whispered into the dark cellar. "Let's see how you handle a sacrificed king."
