Chapter 13 - Sins of the Fathers
Julian looked through the glass floor, down at Chad Sterling, who was now kneeling beside his weeping mother. Chad wouldn't meet Julian's gaze; he kept his eyes fixed firmly on the floor, ashamed yet alive.
""You traded your father's legacy for your mother's life,"" Julian whispered in disbelief. ""You cowardly piece of garbage.""
""My father built a house on quicksand and called it a palace,"" Chad muttered, his voice cracking. ""I'm just tired of drowning.""
Elena tapped the barrel of her gun against the glass. ""The federal servers received the evidence, Julian. But your name wasn't redacted as an informant. You are listed as the primary architect of every illegal arms shipment, every offshore account, and every corporate murder committed in this city for the last decade.""
Julian grabbed the emergency phone in the elevator, frantically trying to dial an outside line, but the line was dead. The silence inside the shaft was absolute.
""You have two choices, Julian,"" Elena announced, her voice cold and merciless. ""You can wait in that cage until the federal tactical team breaches this tunnel and arrests you for high treason. Or you can slide that gold-plated pistol through the service hatch and face my father like a man.""
Julian lowered the dead receiver. His shoulders slumped. For twenty years, he had operated as the phantom puppeteer of the city's criminal underworld, never once getting blood on his own hands. Now, he was cornered in a concrete basement, surrounded by the people he had tried to destroy.
Slowly, Julian bent down. He opened the small emergency hatch in the floor of the elevator carriage, dropped his gold-plated gun through the opening, and let it clatter onto the platform below.
""What do you want?"" Julian asked, his voice hollow and defeated.
May you like
Elena looked back at her father. Vincent Vance stepped forward, holding a single, heavy manila folder marked with a classified seal.
""We want the name of the man who ordered the hit on my yacht,"" Vincent said. ""Because we both know, Julian... you're too cowardly to have made that call yourself.""
