Chapter 13 - The High Ground
Victoria stood beneath the black umbrella, looking up toward the bell tower with an expression of icy, aristocratic fury. Around her, eight heavily armed men fanned out, forming a perimeter that sealed off both ends of the alley.
Marcus looked over the stone balustrade. Frank was pinned behind his truck, returning sporadic fire against overwhelming numbers. Nathan was leaning against the stone tower, clutching his chest and wheezing through the smoke in his lungs.
“Marcus!” Victoria’s amplified voice cut through the rain, broadcast from a loudspeaker mounted on her SUV. “Give it up! You’re on the roof of a burning building with nowhere to go. Give me the documents, and I swear on my family’s name that Lily will be raised with every luxury the world can offer!”
Marcus stepped forward to the edge of the stone parapet, cradling Lily against his chest. His voice was loud, clear, and unyielding.
“Sophia gave her life trying to protect this family from you, Victoria! You will never touch my daughter again!”
“Then you leave me no choice,” Victoria said coldly, turning to her lead gunman. “Take him down. Make sure the papers don’t burn.”
Inside the bell tower, the iron door rattled violently. Miller and his surviving operatives were battering the latch from the inside. The heavy wood groaned under the impact.
“Marcus,” Nathan gasped, pulling a small silver flash drive from inside his coat pocket. “The papers are physical proof, but this drive contains the raw digital backups of the financial trails Sophia uploaded before she died. If this gets broadcast to the federal wire, Victoria is finished.”
“How do we transmit from here?” Marcus asked, keeping his eyes on the battering door.
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“There’s a high-gain emergency repeater station on the parish radio antenna above us,” Nathan said, pointing toward the iron maintenance ladder leading to the bell tower’s spire. “If we plug it in directly, it bypasses Victoria’s local jammers.”
The iron door behind them gave way with a screech of tearing metal.
