Chapter 9 - The Final Stand
“Thomas,” Maxwell rasped, rising slowly from the floor, wiping a smear of blood from his cheek.
“You threw me out like garbage, Uncle!” Thomas screamed over the sound of the thunder shaking the ship. “You ruined my life for a bastard child of a woman who abandoned you thirty years ago!”
“She didn't abandon me!” Maxwell shouted, stepping forward, placing himself directly between Thomas and Maya’s room. “Your father drove her away! And you let her die on a bench!”
“She was nothing!” Thomas shrieked, raising the gun. “Give me the kid, Maxwell! Sign the transfer documents for the estate accounts, or I swear to God I’ll shoot you right here and take her anyway!”
Maxwell stood tall, unblinking, looking down the barrel of his nephew’s gun.
“You’ll have to kill me first, Thomas,” Maxwell said quietly. “Because as long as I draw breath, you will never put a finger on that child.”
Thomas’s hand shook violently on the trigger. His eyes were bloodshot, unhinged by greed and fear. “Don't push me, Maxwell! I have nothing left to lose!”
“You lost everything the day you abandoned your humanity,” Maxwell said, taking a single step closer. “Look at yourself, Thomas. You’re a coward holding a gun in the dark.”
“Shut up!” Thomas yelled.
BANG!
A flash of light illuminated the corridor.
A bullet slammed into the wooden wall inches from Maxwell’s head, splinters showering his coat.
Before Thomas could pull the trigger a second time, the heavy glass windows of the main salon behind him shattered into a thousand pieces.
Bright, blinding searchlights cut through the dark rain from outside.
A massive marine police cutter had pulled directly alongside The Solitude.
“STATE POLICE! DROP YOUR WEAPONS!” a voice roared through a megawatt loudspeaker.
Red and blue police laser sights swept across the hallway, locking onto Thomas’s chest and arms.
Thomas panicked, turning toward the window in terror.
Maxwell seized the split-second distraction. He lunged forward, grabbing Thomas’s wrist and slamming it against the bulkhead. The pistol clattered onto the floor and slid down the hallway. Maxwell threw a heavy right hook into Thomas’s jaw, knocking him flat onto his back.
Tactical police officers flooded into the vessel from the upper deck, their boots heavy against the wood, securing the hired mercenaries within seconds.
An officer pinned Thomas to the floor, snapping steel handcuffs around his wrists.
Thomas lay on the floor, weeping hysterically, his face pressed against the wet wood. “Maxwell! Please! Help me! I’m your family!”
Maxwell looked down at his nephew with a look of cold, tragic pity.
May you like
“You were my family, Thomas,” Maxwell said softly. “Now you’re just a memory.”
Maxwell turned away and ran straight into the master cabin. He opened the closet door and pulled Maya out, wrapping her tightly in his arms as the sirens wailed into the stormy night.
