In his hands, the heavy black railgun hummed with a terrifying, high-pitched whine of accelerating magnetic coils.
“What did you say about my city?”
Vincent whispered.
Julian’s eyes widened in sheer, instinctual terror.
He lunged forward to strike—
Chapter 109 – The Ghosts of the Deep
Julian Ward shrieked in agony, collapsing against the vault threshold, his blood pooling over the polished marble.
The remaining strike team in the elevator corridor hesitated, caught off balance by the loss of their commander and the lethal blast of their own sovereign weapon.
“Marcus!
Get up!”
Vincent barked, tossing the spent railgun aside.
His face was ghostly pale from blood loss, but his eyes were blazing with unholy fury.
Marcus groaned, pushing himself up against the wall, clutching his wounded shoulder with one hand while drawing his backup sidearm with the other.
“Still breathing, sir.
Helipad elevator is clear.
Our gunship is inbound—two minutes out!”
Emma ran to Vincent’s side, wrapping her arms around his waist to support his weight.
“We have to leave now!
If what Julian said is true, they have an entire fleet approaching the city!”
“We aren’t leaving Chicago,” Vincent growled, leaning heavily against her but moving with relentless forward momentum.
“This city belongs to the people who built it, not to a syndicate of ghosts hiding across the Atlantic.
We take Julian with us.
He’s our only bargaining chip.”
Marcus grabbed the screaming, mutilated Julian Ward by his combat harness, dragging him roughly across the floor toward the emergency roof stairwell.
Behind them, alarms began to screech as auxiliary generators in the tower struggled back to life under emergency protocols.
They pushed through the heavy rooftop fire doors, bursting out into the blinding fury of the blizzard.
The sight before them made Emma’s heart seize.
From the roof of the Moretti Tower, eighty stories above the street, the darkened void of Lake Michigan was no longer dark.
Five miles offshore, cutting through the floating sheets of winter ice, were the illuminated silhouettes of massive, gray stealth frigates—warships bearing no national flag, their radar arrays spinning silently against the snowy sky.
Above the water, a swarm of heavy tactical drones circled like iron vultures, their searchlights scanning the freezing waves and painting the Chicago shoreline in cold geometric grids.
The Sovereign Council had arrived.
“God help us,” Marcus muttered, staring at the armada through the swirling snow.
“That isn’t a mercenary raid.
That’s an invasion force.”
Chapter 110 – The Judgment of the Lake
Vincent shoved Emma into the open bay of the helicopter, followed immediately by Marcus, who tossed the half-conscious, bleeding Julian Ward onto the metal deck like a sack of refuse.
Vincent climbed in last, his boots barely clearing the skid as the gunship pulled up violently, pitching sideways into the howling crosswinds.
THWACK-THWACK-THWACK!
The twin turbines screamed at maximum torque as the pilot dove toward the skyline, weaving between the dark silhouettes of Chicago’s skyscrapers to break radar lock.
Below them, the city was plunging into chaos.
Emergency vehicle sirens created a chaotic symphony across the darkened streets.
Crowds were spilling out into Michigan Avenue, looking up at the strange, unmarked drones circling overhead.
Emma knelt on the vibration-heavy metal floor, securing a combat tourniquet around Julian’s severed shoulder to keep him from bleeding to death.
“Talk to me, Julian!
What is the satellite drive for?
How do we stop those ships?”
Julian spat a mouthful of crimson onto the deck, laughing through clenched teeth despite his agony.
“You can’t stop them, cousin.
The ships aren’t here to bombard the city.
They’re here to extract the Core Vault beneath Navy Pier.
The vault your grandfather sealed before he died.”
Vincent moved forward, his cold eyes bearing down on Julian.
“What is in that vault?”
“The gold of three nations… and the digital master keys to every automated defense satellite launched during the Cold War,” Julian whispered, his face turning an ashen gray.
“The Council doesn’t just want wealth.
They want global sovereignty.
In one hour, their automated deep-drilling submersible will breach the seal.
Unless…”
“Unless what?”
Emma demanded, shaking him by the collar.
“Unless the Primary Bloodline enters the airlock and triggers the self-purge protocol,” Julian gasped, his eyes rolling back in his head as shock took hold.
“Blood for blood, Emma.
That’s how your grandfather built it.
The door only opens for a Ward… and it only dies with one.”
Julian lost consciousness, his head slumping forward against his chest.
The helicopter suddenly lurched violently as a proximity alarm blared through the cockpit.
“Missile launch detected from the lead frigate!” the pilot screamed through the intercom.
“Two radar-guided sea-skimmers closing fast!
Countermeasures deployed!”
Bright magnesium flares erupted from the tail of the helicopter, illuminating the blizzard in blinding bursts of orange and white.
