Chapter 18 - The Global Broadcast
Coughing up water, Grace scrambled to her feet, helping Adrian up. "The helipad! Move!"
They sprinted up the service stairs, bursting through the roof access doors onto the windswept helipad just as the roaring blades of a heavy transport helicopter began to spin.
Rain whipped across the roof in blinding sheets.
Victoria stood near the open helicopter door, holding little Maya wrapped in a leather blanket. Marcus was standing at the edge of the helipad, directing the pilot.
"Marcus!" Adrian screamed over the deafening roar of the helicopter engines.
Marcus spun around, his eyes widening in sheer shock as he saw Adrian and Grace soaked, bruised, but alive. He drew his pistol, but Grace threw herself into a tactical slide across the wet helipad floor, sweeping Marcus’s legs.
Marcus crashed hard onto the concrete. Grace punched him across the jaw, disarming him and kicking his gun off the roof into the ocean below.
Meanwhile, Adrian sprinted directly toward Victoria.
"Give me my daughter!" Adrian yelled.
Victoria pulled a small silver pistol from her coat, aiming it directly at Adrian’s heart. "Step back, Adrian! I will shoot you!"
"No, you won't," a voice thundered over the roof’s emergency loudspeakers.
Grace had sprinted to the roof's main communication console, plugging her master drive into the satellite relay.
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Across the entire world—on every news broadcast, every private investor terminal, and every intelligence network—a live high-definition video streamed from the fortress. It showed Victoria Harrington holding her stolen granddaughter, surrounded by heavily armed mercenaries, with full financial ledgers scrolling beside her face.
"Your private network is broadcast live to Interpol, Victoria," Grace shouted into the comm mic. "The whole world is watching you right now!"
