Chapter 175 - Blood on the Steel Gantry
"Lower your weapons, Caldwell," Emma commanded, her voice steady and ringing through the cavernous compartment with absolute authority. "One twitch of your finger, and I drop the drive into the coolant pool. The radiation will incinerate the magnetic core in three seconds. You'll never get the encryption keys, and your offshore accounts, your private mercenary manifests, and your treason will remain permanently locked in the public domain, unredacted."
Caldwell froze, his calculating eyes locking onto the small silver canister in Emma’s hand. The greed and desperation flickered across his aristocratic face, stripping away his polished political veneer.
"You don't know what you're doing, Miss Ward," Caldwell said, raising a placating hand while subtly gesturing with his fingers to his left flank. "That drive doesn't just implicate me. It reveals that the entire city—the schools, the hospitals, the police precincts—was funded by blood money funneled through your grandfather’s hidden patents. Release it, and you burn Chicago to the ground."
"Then let it burn," Emma said cold as ice. "So we can finally build something honest from the ashes."
From the shadows behind the gantry crane, Vincent struck.
He vaulted over the railing, dropping ten feet directly onto the lead mercenary standing behind Caldwell. The impact shattered the soldier’s collarbone as they hit the steel deck. Vincent rolled, swept the second guard's legs out from under him, and drove his combat knife through the operator's side-plate before the man could bring his assault rifle to bear.
The third soldier pivoted, raising his weapon toward Vincent, but Emma had already anticipated the move. From her perch above, she kicked a heavy iron maintenance wrench off the railing. The twelve-pound steel tool struck the soldier square on the helmet, throwing his aim off as his rifle discharged harmlessly into the ceiling.
Vincent seized the opening, disarming the disoriented soldier with a vicious strike to the wrist and putting him down with a point-blank round to the chest.
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Caldwell, realizing his detail had been wiped out in seconds, abandoned Helena and lunged toward the auxiliary airlock. He slammed his hand onto the seal button, intending to purge the room and escape into the lake inside the pressurized diving bell.
"You don't leave!" Vincent roared, charging across the slick catwalk and tackling Caldwell through the open hatch of the airlock chamber.
