Chapter 15 - THE CORNERED RAT
Nathan Vance was currently hiding inside the pool house of his massive estate,
the main mansion having been locked by federal agents.
He had managed to secure a small amount of cash from a hidden safe,
but it was not enough to flee the country.
His expensive clothes were rumpled,
his hair messy,
and his eyes bloodshot from a total lack of sleep and intense paranoia.
He kept a small pistol on the table beside him,
his hand trembling every time he heard a sound outside.
He realized that his mother had been ruined,
his police chief arrested,
and his entire corporate empire completely dismantled in less than twenty-four hours.
He could not comprehend how a simple,
retired old man like Henry could have unleashed such a massive wave of destruction.
"Who the hell are you,
Henry?"
Nathan muttered fiercely to himself,
staring out at the empty,
rain-soaked lawn through the glass.
He remembered the quiet,
unassuming man who had stood in his living room,
looking at him with those cold, empty eyes.
He realized too late that the silence he had mocked was not the silence of a victim,
but of an executioner.
Nathan was a cornered rat,
stripped of his wealth,
his status,
and his powerful connections that had protected him since childhood.
He knew that federal agents would return to the property soon to execute the arrest warrant for the assault.
He refused to spend the rest of his life sitting in a miserable prison cell,
surrounded by the lower classes he despised.
He grabbed the cash,
the small pistol,
and the keys to an old utility truck that the servants used for maintenance.
He sneaked out through the rear gate of the property,
slipping into the rainy afternoon without being spotted by the surveillance teams.
He had one final objective before he fled the state forever,
a desire for absolute revenge against the man who ruined him.
He believed that if he could find Henry and Sophia,
he could force them to drop the federal charges through violence.
It was a desperate,
insane plan born of absolute panic and a complete lack of touch with reality.
He started the utility truck,
the engine sputtering loudly as he drove down the deserted back roads toward Henry's neighborhood.
He had no idea that Henry was actively tracking his movements through a hidden GPS transponder on the truck.
The hunt was reaching its final,
May you like
deadly phase,
and Nathan was walking directly into a trap designed by a master tactician.
