Chapter 9 - The Catalyst of Blood
Ethan stood in the center of the dark cellar, the heavy pistol steady in his hand, his mind working with frantic, terrifying velocity.
He looked at Olivia lying on the narrow cot, her pale eyes fixed on him, her lips moving silently: No... Ethan... no...
He looked at Vance—his driver of four years, the man he had trusted with his life—standing beside his father, a cold stone wall of military discipline.
And then Ethan thought of Leo—his son—sitting upstairs in the rain, holding a dirt-stained plastic bag with a photograph of a meadow in the sun.
"Vance," Ethan said softly, shifting his gaze to the younger man.
The driver didn't break eye contact. "Don't make this harder than it has to be, Mr. Cole. Hand over the gun."
"How long did you know?" Ethan asked, his voice strangely calm now, the edge of panic completely smoothed over by cold, calculating rage. "How long did you watch me mourn her, Vance? How many times did you drive me to the cemetery on the anniversary of her 'death' while your father kept her chained under a warehouse three miles away?"
Vance’s jaw tightened slightly, a microscopic flicker of guilt crossing his hardened features before his eyes went cold again. "My father saved my life when I was wounded in Fallujah. I owe him my allegiance, not you."
"Your father used a nine-year-old child as a beating bag," Ethan said, his voice dropping into an icy whisper that echoed off the damp stone walls. "Look at your father, Vance. Look at him. Is that what you bled for in the desert? To protect a old man who beats little boys?"
"Silence!" Dr. Vance barked, raising his cane angrily. "Vance, take the gun from him now!"
The younger Vance hesitated for a fraction of a second, his eyes flickering toward the cellar stairs—toward the front door where he knew the bruised boy was sitting in the back of the SUV.
That fraction of a second was all Ethan needed.
Ethan didn't shoot Dr. Vance. He didn't shoot the driver.
He raised the barrel of the SIG Sauer and fired three rapid shots directly into the heavy steel control box mounted on the wall above the IV equipment.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Muzzle flashes illuminated the subterranean darkness like lightning strikes. Sparks erupted from the electrical housing as heavy 9mm slugs shattered the digital circuit boards, severing the power lines and blowing the automated potassium valve completely off its mountings.
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"No!" Dr. Vance shrieked, dropping his cane as black smoke poured from the shattered medical equipment.
Before the echoes of the gunfire could fade, Ethan lunged forward, throwing his full weight into a brutal shoulder tackle that slammed Dr. Vance against the stone wall.
