Chapter 17 - Silent Nights, Burning Doubts
Guns barked through the dense smoke, the sound deafening inside the enclosed wooden structure. Bullets splintered the dry timber posts above Liam’s head as he dived behind a stack of rusted ice tongs.
The ice-house was consuming itself rapidly, the dry wood feeding a towering inferno.
"Kill him! Get the ledger!" Arthur roared, his composure shattering as thick black smoke filled his lungs.
Liam scrambled through the heat, his lungs burning. He grabbed a heavy iron ice-hook off the wall, circled behind the smoke, and struck the first gunman from behind, disarming him in a swift, practiced motion. The second guard fired blindly through the haze, but Liam hurled the iron hook, catching the man in the shoulder and sending him tumbling back through the burning doorway onto the lake ice.
Arthur scrambled toward the side exit, clutching a metal briefcase containing his escape passports and bearer bonds.
Liam burst out of the burning building into the freezing sunlight, his clothes singed, his face blackened with soot. He cut off Arthur’s escape on the slippery black ice twenty yards from the shore.
"It’s over, Arthur!" Liam shouted over the roar of the fire behind them.
Arthur pulled a small snub-nosed revolver from his coat pocket, his hands shaking violently as he aimed it at Liam’s chest. "It’s never over! I built this empire! I won't let a ghost like you take it down!"
"Drop the weapon, Dr. Pendelton!"
A loud, stern voice boomed across the ice.
From the tree line, Agent Victor Cross stepped out onto the frozen shore, surrounded by six armed federal agents with tactical rifles aimed at Arthur. Standing right behind Cross, wrapped in a heavy winter coat, was Nora.
Arthur spun around in panic, his gun wavering between Liam and the federal officers. "Stay back! He’s a criminal! He burned the evidence!"
"We heard everything, Arthur," Agent Cross said coldly, tapping a wire receiver on his collar. "Mrs. Vance didn't just bring us your ledger copies. She was wearing a short-range wire transmitter when she met us at the county road. Every word of your confession was broadcast directly to our mobile command van."
Arthur’s eyes went wild with desperation. Realizing his life was ruined, he swung his gun back toward Liam, his finger tightening on the trigger. "If I go down, you come with me!"
May you like
BANG!
A single gunshot cracked through the freezing air.
