Chapter 4 - THE ULTIMATUMThe red LED on the detonator box blinked with a steady, hypnotic pulse—blink... blink... blink—cutting through the heavy shadows of the overgrown clearing.
Daniel kept his pistol raised, his arms locked straight, his eyes locked onto Travis’s finger resting inches from the trigger switch. The air between them felt charged, thick enough to taste like copper and fear.
“You’re insane, Travis,” Daniel said, his voice cold and steady. “You think blowing up a government informant and a police officer is going to make this go away? The whole department knows I’m out here. Backup is already looking for this property.”
Travis let out a dry, barking laugh that held no humor in it whatsoever. “Backup? Reyes, your own sheriff called me ten minutes ago to apologize for your little insubordination. Nobody is coming. You’re off the clock, off the grid, and standing on private land.”
Travis took a slow step forward, the rifle barrel never wavering from the center of Daniel’s chest.
“You think I wanted this?” Travis hissed, his voice dropping into a low, venomous growl. “Sarah ruined everything. She found the ledger in my workshop. She figured out where the money from the state development grants was actually going. She tried to take Eli and run to Miami. I had to protect my family, Officer. I had to protect my legacy.”
“And the boy?” Daniel challenged, trying to buy precious seconds, keeping his peripheral vision fixed on the steel hatch behind him. “You let a three-year-old wander onto a public highway with a bleeding foot just to distract the authorities?”
“He slipped out! The lock on the upper latch rusted through last night,” Travis snapped, genuine panic flashing across his face for a split second. “He was never supposed to leave the cabin grounds. But when he did... he carried his little insurance policy right into your lap, didn't he?”
Travis’s eyes darted toward the steel bulkhead. From beneath the metal doors, the faint, desperate tapping sound started up again—tap, tap, tap—followed by a muffled, heartbreaking sob that sounded unmistakably like a woman’s voice crying out a single word: “Eli...”
Travis flinched. His grip on the rifle tightened.
“Step away from the hatch, Daniel. Now. Put your gun on the ground and kick it over here.”
Daniel’s mind raced. If he dropped his weapon, Travis would execute him on the spot and bury him in the swamp alongside whatever else was hidden on this cursed property. But if he tried to draw and shoot, Travis’s finger could twitch on the detonator before the bullet even left the barrel.
He needed a distraction. Something external. Something unpredictable.
A sudden, sharp crack echoed through the trees—not from a gun, but from the screech of tires tearing along Route 41 a few hundred yards away, followed by the familiar, high-pitched wail of a police siren cutting through the humid air.
Travis’s head whipped toward the highway in distraction.
It was all the opening Daniel needed.
With lightning speed, Daniel didn't shoot—instead, he dropped to the muddy earth, sweeping his leg out in a vicious low kick that caught Travis squarely across both shins.
Travis roared as his legs buckled. The hunting rifle flew from his grip, discharging harmlessly into the canopy above with a deafening roar that scattered a cloud of startled blackbirds. The detonator box slipped from Travis’s wrist, tumbling into the thick palmetto brush a few feet away.
Daniel scrambled forward, lunging on top of Travis, pinning the larger man’s face directly into the wet black mud.
“It’s over, Travis! You’re done!” Daniel grunted, twisting Travis’s arm behind his back and pulling out his heavy steel handcuffs.
But as Daniel clicked the cuffs shut on Travis’s right wrist, Travis let out a chilling, guttural chuckle. He didn't struggle against the cuffs. Instead, he twisted his neck around, his mud-caked face splitting into a wide, terrifying grin.
“You think I’m the only one down here, Officer Reyes?” Travis whispered, blood dripping from his split lip. “Look behind you.”
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Daniel froze.
The heavy steel bulkhead doors behind him were slowly, silently being pushed upward from the inside.
