Chapter 10 - The Confrontation on the Pier
The gap opened onto the wet wooden planks of the old pier. Rain pelted their faces as the dark expanse of the bay churned below. The watchman's office was locked, its windows boarded up with plywood. There was nowhere left to run.
Footsteps splashed heavily on the timber behind them. Ward turned, raising his firearm, but a laser sight danced across his chest from the shadows. Two armed private contractors emerged, their weapons trained steadily on the detective.
Julian walked forward slowly, tossing the umbrella aside into the puddle. Rain soaked into his tailored suit, his hair plastered to his forehead, revealing the manic fury he had hidden behind polished smiles for a decade.
"Drop the gun, old man," Julian said dismissively. "You were incompetent when Clara’s father hired you, and you're pathetic now."
Ward hesitated, then slowly lowered his weapon to the wet planks, raising his hands. "It’s over, Julian. Clara’s evidence is already backed up on remote servers. You can't kill us all without triggering an automatic disclosure."
Julian laughed—a dry, humorless sound that was lost to the wind. "Remote servers? Clara didn't know the first thing about cloud encryption. Everything she had was on that micro-drive she sent to her sister. The sister gave it to Elena. And Elena has it right here."
Julian turned his gaze to Elena. His eyes flickered briefly over her swollen belly before locking onto her face.
"Hand it over, Elena. Hand over the card, give me Leo, and I’ll let you have a generous trust fund for that child you're carrying. You can raise her in Europe. Far away from my life."
Elena stood tall, ignoring the sharp pain radiating through her lower back. She held Leo with one arm, using the other to reach into her pocket. She pulled out the tiny, black memory chip, holding it between her thumb and forefinger over the edge of the pier.
"Is this what your entire empire rests on, Julian?" Elena asked, her voice clear and unbroken by the wind. "A piece of plastic the size of a fingernail?"
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"Don't be stupid!" Julian stepped forward, panic finally flashing in his eyes. "You drop that, and you have nothing to bargain with! You'll be destitute!"
"I would rather raise my children in an alley with clean hands than in your mansion built on Clara's grave," Elena said.
