Chapter 8 - The Desperate Strike
The heavy brass candleholder spun through the air in a blur, catching Arthur squarely across the left temple with a dull, sickening crack. He staggered backward, dropping the iron hammer as his hands flew to his bleeding head, his eyes widening in shock as he tumbled awkwardly against the stone pillar.
"Now, Dad! Run!" Leo screamed, grabbing his mother's hand and pulling her toward the narrow service corridor opening behind the altar before the sliding floor completely sealed off the upper level.
Julian didn't hesitate. He grabbed Mia by the waist, lifting her effortlessly as he sprinted past the dazed Arthur and Detective Miller, who was momentarily distracted by his partner's sudden injury.
"Stop them!" Arthur roared, wiping blood from his forehead with a trembling hand as he pointed frantically toward the fleeing family. "Shoot them, you idiot! Don't let them reach the stairs!"
Detective Miller raised his service weapon, tracking Julian’s running figure, but the thick white halon gas was already pouring from the overhead vents, reducing visibility to a blurry, toxic haze. The sharp, chemical fumes stung their eyes and burned their throats, making it nearly impossible to draw a clean breath.
"Get down!" Julian yelled, shielding Clara and the children as a deafening roar echoed behind them.
The heavy iron door of the chapel's side exit blew outward under a remote-controlled explosive charge, sending splintered wood and metal shrapnel flying across the concrete landing outside. Through the billowing smoke, a dark, unmarked sedan was idling at the bottom of the exterior staircase, its passenger door swinging wide open.
"In the car! Go, go, go!" a gruff, unfamiliar voice shouted from the driver's seat of the vehicle, half-obscured by the shadows of the morning fog rolling in from the river.
Clara hesitated on the threshold, coughing violently as the halon gas chased them out of the building. "Who is that? We don't know who's in that car, Julian! It could be another one of Arthur's men!"
"We don't have a choice!" Julian shouted, shoving Clara and the children into the back seat of the idling sedan before diving in after them and slamming the door shut. "Drive! Just drive!"
The car screeched away from the curb, tires smoking against the wet pavement as it accelerated violently down the winding access road, leaving the Oak Ridge Memorial Chapel behind in a cloud of dust and thickening fog.
Inside the back seat, Mia buried her face in Clara’s chest, her small frame shaking with delayed shock, while Julian pressed his back against the upholstery, gasping for air as he wiped soot and sweat from his face. He leaned forward to look through the glass partition at the driver, his heart pounding against his ribs.
The driver slowly adjusted the rearview mirror, catching Julian’s terrified gaze in the reflection. It wasn't one of Arthur's mercenaries. It was Sarah Vance, Julian’s estranged younger sister, who had supposedly been missing in South America for over three years.
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"Hello, big brother," Sarah said coldly, her eyes hard as flint as she shifted gears and sped into the labyrinth of the city's industrial district. "Did you really think you could play god with my family's lives and get away with it?"
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