Chapter 6 - THE GHOST IN THE WIRES
I didn't lower my weapon. I stared at the mercenary, my expression perfectly flat.
“You have poor intel,” I told him, my voice carrying no inflection. “If you knew who I was, you’d know I don’t negotiate for hostages.”
The mercenary hesitated. It was only a fraction of a second, a tiny flicker of doubt in his eyes, but it was all I needed. I raised my sidearm and fired a single suppressed shot.
The round grazed Natalie’s shoulder—tearing through the fabric of her blouse—and buried itself precisely in the center of the mercenary’s forehead.
He dropped like a stone. Natalie screamed, collapsing to the floor and clutching her arm. It was a superficial burn, but the shock sent her into violent hysterics.
I walked over, kicked the mercenary’s weapon away, and grabbed Natalie by the back of her collar, hauling her to her feet.
“Stop crying,” I commanded. “Where is Mother?”
“I don't know!” Natalie sobbed, trembling so violently her teeth chattered. “When they broke through the windows, she ran! She left me!”
Of course she did. Eleanor Vance cared about one thing: her own survival.
Suddenly, the encrypted tactical radio I had stripped off the dead mercenary crackled to life.
“Vance,” the smooth, heavily accented voice said. El Cuervo. The Raven. “Impressive shot. But you are fighting a losing battle. Look at the security feed in the study.”
I dragged Natalie down the hall and kicked open the doors to my father’s oak-paneled study. The emergency red lights illuminated a massive bank of security monitors my father had installed behind a false bookcase.
On the center screen, I saw my mother.
She was in the grand foyer, holding her hands up, sobbing as she spoke to a man standing in the doorway. It was El Cuervo himself. He was dressed in a tailored winter coat, looking entirely out of place in a warzone, calmly smoking a cigarette.
“Please,” Mother begged on the audio feed, dropping to her knees. “I gave you the estate layout! I disabled the perimeter alarms yesterday like you asked! I did everything! Just let me leave!”
Natalie gasped, staring at the screen in absolute horror. “She… she let them in?”
I felt a cold, hollow void open in my chest. My mother hadn’t just made a foolish financial mistake. She had actively conspired with the people trying to kill my wife.
On the screen, El Cuervo smiled down at Eleanor. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a heavy gold signet ring. My father’s ring. The one that went missing the night he died of a supposedly sudden heart attack.
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“You did well, Eleanor,” El Cuervo purred on the screen. “Just like you did when you helped me deal with your stubborn husband. But I am afraid your usefulness has reached its end.”
He raised his pistol and pointed it directly at my mother’s head.
