Chapter 9 - The Final Broadcast
The oak door shuddered violently under Miller’s kicks, cracks splintering through the center panels. Out in the living room, the fire was spreading rapidly, thick black smoke already curling beneath the bottom of the study door.
"Progress is at forty-eight percent!" Ethan yelled, watching the screen’s upload bar tick upward agonizingly slowly. "Mom, it’s too slow! The bandwidth is choking on the video files!"
Claire didn't panic. She racked the slide of Mercer's recovered handgun, checked the magazine, and stood directly in front of the desk, keeping her body between the door and the terminal.
"Stay down under the desk, Ethan," Claire commanded, her voice dropping into a razor-sharp whisper. "Whatever happens, you don't let anyone touch that keyboard until that screen turns green."
BOOM!
The study door finally gave way. Deputy Miller burst into the room, gun raised, but Claire fired twice in rapid succession. The rounds struck Miller in the tactical vest, knocking the heavy man backward into the burning hallway where he collapsed against the blazing timber frames.
Before Claire could advance, a hand reached through the smoke, grabbed her wrist, and wrenched the gun from her grip with bone-cracking force.
Richard stepped into the room.
His face was blackened with soot, his eyes wild with demonic fury. He kicked the study door shut behind him, sealing them inside the rapidly burning office. He shoved Claire violently across the room, sending her crashing into the heavy glass bookcase.
"You really thought you could outsmart me, Claire?" Richard snarled, leveling his gun at her head. "I built this empire with your father's money. I'm not letting a twelve-year-old child and a dead woman take it from me."
"It's not your empire, Richard," Claire spat blood onto the floor, glaring at him with pure hatred. "You're a parasite."
Behind the desk, the computer monitor let out a sharp, high-pitched chime: UPLOAD 99%... COMPLETE. BROADCAST TRANSMITTED TO DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE SERVERS.
Richard’s head snapped toward the desk. His eyes widened in absolute horror as he saw Ethan standing by the keyboard, holding the emergency broadcast confirmation screen in plain view.
"Cancel it!" Richard screamed, turning his gun toward Ethan. "Enter the override code and cancel the upload, you little bastard!"
"No," Ethan said, looking Richard dead in the eye.
Richard pulled the trigger.
CLICK.
The chamber was empty. The firing pin struck on a spent shell.
Claire lunged from the floor, wrapping the heavy iron desk lamp around Richard's neck with all her remaining strength, dragging him backward onto the burning floorboards.
"Run, Ethan! Out the window! NOW!" Claire screamed, wrestling Richard for control of the weapon.
Ethan dove through the ground-floor bay window, shattering the glass and tumbling out onto the wet lawn as the entire second story of the cabin erupted into a towering inferno of flames.
From the woods surrounding the property, dozens of red and blue emergency lights suddenly pierced the smoke. Sirens wailed as a convoy of Federal Bureau of Investigation tactical vehicles and State Police cruisers tore up the driveway, blocking all exits.
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Ethan stood up in the rain, gasping for air, his eyes locked on the burning window he had just escaped.
Inside the blazing room, a shadow stood silhouetted against the fire, walking slowly toward the broken glass.
