Chapter 11 - The Red Dot on the Chest
The tiny red laser dot hovered steadily over the center of Marcus’s black t-shirt, glowing like a malevolent ember in the dim, smoky light of the dining room. Marcus froze, his breath catching in his throat, his eyes locked on the pulsing red light as if paralyzed by a snake's gaze.
"Don't move," Julian hissed, lunging sideways and grabbing Marcus by the collar of his shirt, violently yanking him down behind the heavy mahogany dining table just as a silenced round shattered the crystal wine glass inches from where Marcus's head had been a second earlier.
Glass shards rained down across the Persian rug, mixing with the spilled wine and the broken china plates. Nia screamed, curling tighter around her stomach as another wave of agonizing cramps wracked her body. Evelyn shielded Nia with her own torso, her olive-green satin blouse tearing on a sharp wood splinter as she threw herself over her daughter.
"Julian, she's going into active labor!" Maya shouted over the ringing in her ears, her heart hammering against her ribs so hard it felt like it would break through her chest. "The smoke and the stress—she can't carry it to term under these conditions!"
Julian didn't look back. He kept his weapon trained on the shattered archway, his finger resting lightly on the trigger. "She doesn't have a choice," Julian yelled back, his voice strained and frantic. "The payload has to remain stable for at least another twelve hours, or the cellular sequence will self-destruct inside her bloodstream!"
A heavy shadow detached itself from the thick grey smoke lingering in the hallway. A man in tactical black gear stepped into the dining room, holding an assault rifle equipped with a thermal scope. He didn't speak. He simply raised the barrel, sweeping the room with cold, mechanical efficiency.
Without hesitation, Julian fired twice. The tactical operative staggered backward, dropping his weapon with a sharp clatter, and collapsed into the wreckage of the foyer coat rack. But the sound of gunfire brought answering shouts from the kitchen corridor behind them. The house was entirely compromised.
"Give me the satellite phone," Maya demanded, crawling across the floor toward Julian with desperate resolve.
Julian glanced down at her, his eyes narrowing. "What are you going to do with it? The network is locked."
"You said Dr. Sterling wants this sequence intact more than anything else in the world, right?" Maya snapped, her dark eyes flashing with fierce determination. "Call him. Tell him his asset is about to die on the floor of my mother's dining room unless he calls off his dogs right now!"
Julian stared at her for a fraction of a second, weighing the suicidal gamble, then tossed the encrypted satellite phone across the rug into Maya's outstretched hands.
Maya caught it, punched the red emergency recall button, and pressed the receiver to her ear just as a boot kicked through the remaining wood of the kitchen door.
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"Dr. Sterling," Maya screamed into the static-filled line. "Call off your men, or I cut my sister's throat right now and destroy your precious genome forever!"
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