Chapter 11 - Total Darkness
Julian stopped dead in his tracks, his heart hammering against his ribs. He clicked the power switch of his riot flashlight repeatedly, but the heavy-duty bulb flickered once and went completely dead, starved of power by the automated grid shutdown.
"Damn it!" Julian muttered, groping blindly against the cold, damp concrete wall to keep his balance in the suffocating blackness.
"Looking for something, little brother?"
Marcus’s voice echoed out of the darkness, seeming to bounce off every pipe and ceiling tile at once, making it impossible to pinpoint his exact location.
"Show yourself, Marcus!" Julian shouted into the void, gripping the tactical radio in his left hand. "It's over! The police are already breaching the surface vents!"
A harsh, blinding beam of white light suddenly sliced through the darkness, pinning Julian squarely in its glare. He threw a hand up to shield his eyes, squinting against the painful brightness. Marcus stood twenty feet down the corridor, leaning casually against a massive transformer box with a heavy-caliber pistol resting loosely in his right hand.
"The police aren't coming, Julian," Marcus said smoothly, his smile catching the stark white light. "I rerouted their dispatch frequencies five minutes ago. Right now, Officer Miller is driving in circles on the other side of town."
Julian lowered his hand slowly, his eyes adjusting to the glare. "You really think you can murder your way out of this? Sarah is alive. Lily knows the truth. Even if you kill me, the authorities already have your financial records."
Marcus let out a low, cold chuckle. "My financial records? Julian, do you honestly believe I kept my money in domestic accounts? By midnight, every cent of our family empire will be wired to an offshore vault in Zurich, and I'll be boarding a private flight across the Atlantic."
May you like
Marcus raised the pistol, leveling the barrel directly at Julian’s chest. "It's a shame, really. We could have shared the empire. But you just had to play the grieving widower."
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