Chapter 46 - The Blackout over Ravenswood
Daniel pressed the muzzle of his captured sidearm directly between Howell’s singed eyebrows. "Where is she?"
Howell coughed blood, his pristine medical facade melting into pitiful, whimpering terror. "Please! Don't! I was just hired... Victor paid me ten million to oversee the reconstruction and the neural sequencing!"
"Where is Vanessa?" Daniel racked the slide, the click echoing like a thunderclap in Howell’s skull.
"Ravenswood Manor!" Howell shrieked, clutching his burned arm. "The old hunting estate on the north ridge of Blackwood! She’s running the uplink from the underground vault! Marcus took her there after the bridge collapsed!"
"What is the collar for?" Daniel demanded, pressing the barrel harder until skin split against iron. "Why the collar?!"
"It’s not just a collar!" Howell sobbed, his eyes darting frantically. "It’s a neural-inhibition interface! Once locked around the boy's neck, it overrides his autonomic nervous system with localized electro-shocks! It forces compliance! It makes him pass the biometric voice and stress tests for the Swiss banks! She wants to take the money and leave him locked in the vault forever!"
Daniel felt a white-hot fury ignite within his core—a rage deeper and deadlier than anything he had ever known. He struck Howell across the temple with the butt of the weapon, knocking the doctor unconscious into the mud.
He stripped the keys to the lead SUV from Howell’s pocket, retrieved Mason from the shadows of the burning depot, and secured him in the back seat beneath a heavy emergency blanket.
"Where are we going, Daddy?" Mason asked, his small voice steady despite the chaos.
Daniel looked into the rearview mirror, his eyes hollowed by exhaustion, but blazing with absolute purpose.
"We’re going to end this where it started, Mason," Daniel said quietly, shifting the SUV into gear. "We’re going to take the monster's collar and put it in the fire."
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Outside, lightning tore across the sky, plunging the valley into an unnatural, strobing twilight as Daniel turned the vehicle north toward Ravenswood Manor.
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