Chapter 4 - The Battle for the Estate
The heavy impact echoed like a thunderclap. The mercenary collapsed instantly, unconscious.
"What the—?!" the second mercenary turned, raising his rifle.
Grant took instant advantage of the distraction. He smashed his elbow backward into the second mercenary’s jaw, threw him over his shoulder, and slammed him into the marble coffee table, shattering it to pieces.
Grant snatched the mercenary’s sidearm from his holster, stood up, and aimed directly at Vanessa, who was halfway across the terrace outside.
"Freeze, Vanessa!" Grant bellowed.
Vanessa froze in the pouring rain, turning around slowly, her eyes wide with shock as she saw Grant holding the rifle and Sabrina standing triumphantly holding the dented fire extinguisher.
"You... you stupid servant!" Vanessa screamed in rage.
Suddenly, the roar of a heavy helicopter engine echoed overhead. Searchlights swept across the mansion lawn.
"Grant! Drop your weapon!" a voice boomed from the helicopter's loudspeaker.
It wasn't the police. It was a private military helicopter bearing the emblem of Sterling Global—the private security force owned by Senator Sterling, Vanessa's father.
"They're here for me!" Vanessa laughed hysterically in the rain. "You're too late, Grant! You lose!"
A rope ladder descended from the helicopter toward the terrace. Vanessa grabbed it, signaling the pilot to pull up.
"Sabrina, stay inside!" Grant shouted. He bolted out onto the slippery stone terrace into the torrential rain, firing shots toward the helicopter's rotors. But the sniper from the helicopter fired back, forcing Grant to dive behind a stone pillar for cover.
Vanessa swung up into the air, laughing wildly as the helicopter began to lift away over the tree line of the Greenwich estate.
Grant slammed his fist against the stone pillar in frustration. "Damn it!"
Sabrina ran out onto the terrace, wet from the rain, holding Emma tightly in her arms. "Grant! Are you okay?"
Grant turned around, breathing heavily. He looked at Sabrina, then at Emma, who was staring up at the helicopter in awe.
"I'm fine," Grant said, his eyes turning to ice. "They think they won. They think they can take my sister, attempt to murder my family, and just fly away."
He pulled out his satellite phone, which was connected to a dedicated private network unaffected by the mansion's power grid outage. He dialed a priority-zero code.
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"Vance," Grant said into the phone, his voice dripping with absolute venom. "Initiate Protocol Omega. Contact the FAA and lock down all air space within five hundred miles. Mobilize the Hawthorne private strike team. We are going to Upstate New York."
He turned to Sabrina, reaching out to gently touch Emma's cheek. "Sabrina, prepare yourself. In two hours, we are getting Julianna back. And then we are tearing the Sterling family down to ashes."
