Chapter 10
Senator Vance froze halfway through his step, his sharp eyes narrowing as he scanned Julian’s calm, unblinking face. The four armed guards kept their weapons trained firmly on the center of the room, their fingers resting lightly on the triggers, waiting for a single command to end it all.
"You're stalling, Julian," Vance said, though a subtle edge of uncertainty crept into his smooth political baritone. "There is no cavalry coming. Captain Vance ensured that every federal unit within twenty miles was redirected to a false disturbance downtown. You are entirely alone."
"I never said anything about the police, Senator," Julian replied, his voice chillingly steady. He slowly reached into the breast pocket of his ruined, waterlogged tuxedo and pulled out a small, ruggedized satellite transmitter with a blinking green LED light. "When Arthur Vanguard built this estate, he didn't just install a hidden safe. He hardwired a closed-circuit broadcast system directly into the main media servers of every major news network in the state."
Senator Vance’s face drained of color in an instant. The polished, untouchable mask cracked completely.
"What did you do?" Vance demanded, taking a sharp step forward, his hand instinctively reaching out as if to snatch the device from Julian’s grip.
"The moment we opened that wall safe and retrieved your signet ring, the system automatically initiated a secure, encrypted data stream," Julian explained, holding the transmitter up so Vance could see the blinking green light. "Right now, every audio recording of your conversation with my uncle, every financial transfer from the foundation to your offshore accounts, and your exact admission of guilt regarding his murder are being broadcast live to every newsroom, independent journalist, and federal watchdog agency in the country."
The four armed guards looked nervously at Senator Vance, their disciplined formation faltering for a split second as the terrifying realization of what this meant set in.
"Shoot him! Shoot him now and destroy that device!" Vance screamed, losing all semblance of his calm, composed political demeanor.
Before the guards could pull their triggers, the heavy overhead lights of the grand ballroom flickered violently and then died completely, plunging the entire space into pitch blackness.
Chaos erupted in the dark. A muffled gunshot echoed off the vaulted stone ceiling, followed by the sound of shattering glass and heavy bodies colliding with the marble floor. Elena screamed, dropping to her knees as a heavy hand grabbed her arm in the dark, pulling her hard away from the center of the room.
"Stay down!" Julian’s voice hissed urgently right beside her ear, pulling her toward the concealed panel behind the stone fireplace.
In the dim emergency glow of the backup lights, Elena saw two of the armed guards sprawled motionless on the floor, while Senator Vance and the remaining guards scrambled frantically toward the main exit doors, blinded by the sudden darkness and the deafening wail of the estate’s security alarms.
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"They're escaping!" Elena shouted over the blaring siren, trying to pull away from Julian's grip.
"Let them run," Julian said, his dark eyes shining with intense resolve as he held up the blinking satellite transmitter. "They have nowhere left to hide."
