Chapter 9 - The Fall of an Empire

Before my father could pull the trigger, the massive glass windows of the penthouse shattered inward with a deafening roar.

Flashbang grenades rained into the room, exploding in blinding flashes of white light and thunderous sound. My father shrieked, dropping the revolver as he clutched his eyes and ears, stumbling backward onto the floor.

"Federal agents! Nobody move! Drop your weapons!"

The room was suddenly flooded with tactical operators in black body armor, their rifles raised. Leading the charge was Colonel Vance, looking like a grim reaper in a military uniform, followed by a dozen FBI agents.

Within seconds, my father was shoved face-first onto the carpet, his hands brutally zip-tied behind his back. The two hired thugs were quickly handcuffed and dragged away.

Colonel Vance walked over to me, lower his rifle, and looked at me with a profound sense of relief. "You just can't follow an order, can you, Captain?"

"I had a debt to pay, sir," I said, wiping a smear of blood from my cheek. I walked over to the computer terminal, pulled out Julian’s flash drive, and handed it directly to the lead FBI agent. "Everything you need is on this drive. The offshore accounts, the transaction histories, and the email where Richard Vale sold out my unit’s flight coordinates to a foreign terrorist cell."

The FBI agent took the drive, his expression grim. "This is treason, Captain. Your father is going away for the rest of his life."

My father looked up from the floor, his face twisted in a mask of pure hatred and despair. "Maren! You monster! You've ruined us! You've destroyed your own blood!"

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"You aren't my blood," I said, looking down at him with nothing but cold indifference. "You're just a criminal who made the mistake of thinking my life was a commodity."

As they dragged him out of the office in handcuffs, the morning sun finally broke over the horizon, filling the room with a brilliant, clean golden light. For the first time in six months, the weight on my chest felt a little lighter.