Chapter 8 - Fire and Rust
The explosion was a deafening roar of orange flame and pressurized refrigerant gas. The concussion wave knocked Marcus off his feet, sending his umbrella flying over the edge of the building. The helicopter lurched violently sideways as the pilot fought the sudden thermal updraft, its spotlight spinning erratically across the rooftop.
Eleanor didn't waste a heartbeat. She snatched Lily into her arms and dove toward the secondary maintenance hoist at the western edge of the roof—an industrial window-washing cradle suspended by heavy steel cables.
"Hold on to me!" Eleanor screamed over the howling wind.
She dropped Lily onto the metal floor of the cradle, vaulted over the safety bar, and severed the primary manual brake lever with a heavy iron wrench from the maintenance kit. The cradle plummeted in a terrifying, stomach-churning free fall before the secondary centrifugal brakes locked with a screech of shearing steel, coming to an abrupt halt five stories down, right level with an open parking structure window.
Eleanor kicked through the wire-mesh grating, hauled Lily inside the concrete garage, and sprinted toward the private vehicle fleet maintained by building tenants.
Within two minutes, she had hot-wired an unassuming dark-gray sedan. The engine roared to life just as sirens began wailing across the downtown grid.
"Where are we going?" Lily sobbed, shivering on the passenger seat, hugging her knees to her chest.
"The Old Harbor," Eleanor replied, slamming the accelerator down and tearing through the exit barrier onto the rain-slicked highway. "He gave me two hours. That means Clara has ninety minutes."
Eleanor pulled the heavy gold sapphire ring from her finger. She looked inside the band under the dashboard light. Clara had mentioned that the date wasn't just an engraving. Eleanor used the tip of the utility knife from the car’s emergency kit to pry at the inner gold rim.
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With a soft click, the interior casing snapped open. Inside lay a microscopic, custom-cut microdot crystal—Julian’s master override cipher for the Vance Corporation’s global asset registry.
She didn't just have Clara's location. She had the weapon that could annihilate Marcus Vance forever.
