Chapter 13 - Blood on the Horizon
The first pale gray light of dawn cracked through the storm clouds, painting the Atlantic a slate-gray hue. On the breaker reef, the wind began to die, leaving an eerie, suffocating silence.
A hundred yards away, the Thorne Syndicate patrol cutter maneuvered around the wreckage of the fallen lighthouse, cutting its engines as it bumped against the breaker reef.
Julian Thorne himself jumped down onto the slick rocks, a sleek automatic rifle hanging from his shoulder, his expensive overcoat soaked and ruined. Behind him followed his final two surviving bodyguards.
Alexander stood up slowly, stepping out from behind the jagged boulder to meet them. He stood tall, despite the bruised ribs and the bloody gash along his jaw, his posture radiating the cold, unyielding authority of a king defending his gates.
""You're remarkably difficult to kill, Alexander,"" Julian called out, stopping thirty paces away on the rocks. ""I suppose that's why Eleanor chose you. She always had an affinity for stubborn, disposable men.""
""Eleanor chose me because I wasn't a parasite hiding behind trust funds and hired killers,"" Alexander replied, his voice carrying over the crashing waves.
Julian laughed, a sharp, bitter bark. ""You think you've won because your little drive uploaded? By the time the authorities freeze my accounts, I’ll be on a private airstrip in Caracas with forty million in gold bullion. But I won't leave with loose ends. Where is the child, Alexander?""
Alexander didn't answer. He simply watched Julian take two steps forward.
""Give me the girl,"" Julian sneered, raising his rifle. ""Or I feed your body to the reef.""
""She isn't on the rocks, Julian,"" a cold voice spoke from behind him.
Julian spun around.
Clara stood atop a higher ledge of the breaker wall, her face smeared with blood and soot. In her hands was the heavy flare gun from the lighthouse emergency kit, loaded with a military-grade magnesium phosphorous shell, pointed directly at the exposed fuel tanks of the patrol cutter sitting ten yards behind Julian.
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""Clara,"" Julian smiled coldly, not lowering his rifle. ""My greatest creation. You wouldn't pull that trigger. Phosphorous at this range will burn us all alive.""
""You taught me how to shoot, Julian,"" Clara said softly, her thumb pulling back the heavy hammer. ""You forgot to teach me how to fear.""
