Chapter 30 - The Shattered Sky
Claire violently kicked open the emergency exit door, stumbling out into the freezing storm. The torrential rain and biting wind of the Washington D.C. skyline whipped her bruised face. The neon lights of the capital city blurred in the distance like a fallen ocean of stars. On the helipad, a sleek, unmarked black Black Hawk helicopter was idling, its rotors tearing through the rain with a deafening roar.
Relief washed over her. She thought it was the loyalist extraction team her father had promised. Clutching her side, she sprinted across the wet concrete of the roof, her heart pounding with the desperate, intoxicating hope of survival.
The side door of the Black Hawk slid open. Claire smiled, reaching her hand out, waiting for a friendly agent to pull her to safety.
Her smile instantly turned into a mask of pure, paralyzing horror.
The man stepping out of the dark cabin wasn't a loyalist agent. It was one of Vance’s elite enforcers, and he was aiming a heavy tactical taser directly at her chest. And sitting comfortably in the leather seats of the chopper, casually holding a crystal glass of champagne, was Preston Beaumont. His bruised, battered face twisted into a sick, triumphant smile. He had successfully bought his way onto the escape flight before the building went into lockdown, and his grand prize was standing right in front of him.
"Good evening, darling," Preston yelled over the roar of the rotors, swirling his champagne. "Did you really think a few lines of code would end our game? The Beaumonts never lose."
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Before Claire could draw her weapon, the enforcer pulled the trigger. Two barbed metal prongs slammed into her Kevlar vest, the electric current arcing into her neck. Tens of thousands of volts violently seized her muscles. Claire collapsed onto the freezing, wet concrete, her body completely paralyzed, yet her mind remained terrifyingly conscious.
Two enforcers jumped down, grabbing her limp body and dragging her roughly into the cabin of the helicopter. The metal door slammed shut, severing her from the outside world like a guillotine. The Black Hawk lifted violently off the helipad, disappearing into the black, storm-ravaged sky, carrying Claire into a new, inescapable nightmare, while the muffled echoes of gunfire from the server room below marked the unknown fate of Marcus Reed.
