Chapter 19 - The Fall of the ArchonsHeavy footsteps thundered down the hallway outside.
"Hostiles!" Marius barked, grabbing my arm and pulling me behind the marble bar as the oak doors were kicked off their hinges!
Eight of Elena’s elite private security mercenaries burst into the room, dressed in white winter camouflage, armed with submachine guns.
"Kill them both!" Elena screamed from the floor, clutching her bleeding shoulder. "Kill them and salvage the drives!"
Marius pulled two hand grenades from his tactical belt, pulled the pins with his teeth, and tossed them across the slick marble floor.
"Cover your ears!" he yelled, throwing his arms around me and slamming us both to the floor.
KABOOM!
The double detonation blew out the massive glass windows overlooking the Alps, filling the grand salon with blinding orange fire, smoke, and flying stone shards.
Marius didn't wait for the dust to clear. He vaulted over the bar like an enraged titan, firing his SIG Sauer with lethal, terrifying speed.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
He moved through the smoke like a ghost of death, clearing the room in under fifteen seconds. The remaining mercenaries dropped like stone blocks into the snow blowing in through the shattered windows.
I stood up, adjusting my coat, stepping over the debris.
We walked over to my mother. She was lying against the base of the ruined wall, shivering from the freezing alpine wind blowing into the room, her eyes filled with a terrifying combination of pain, shock, and defeat.
"It's over, Elena," Marius said, lowering his weapon, looking down at her without a grain of pity. "The Archons are gone. Your empire is ashes."
I knelt down beside my mother, looking deep into her eyes.
"You told me once that the world is divided into monsters and prey," I whispered into her ear. "You were wrong, Mother. The world belongs to the ones who build the cages."
Sirens echoed in the distance—the Swiss Federal Police and Interpol tactical units were finally closing in on the villa, alerted by the automated security alerts I had triggered during the re-coding sequence.
"Let's go, Marius," I said, standing up and taking his hand. "Our jet is waiting."
Marius looked at my mother one last time, then squeezed my hand tightly. "Where to, Boss?"
May you like
I looked out at the vast, white snowscape of the Alps, a slow, triumphant smile spreading across my lips.
"Home."
