Chapter 60 - The Open Door
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Ben slowly stood up next to me, his eyes locked on the silver crown in my hand. He didn't cry anymore. The man standing next to me was no longer a husband or a businessman. He was a weapon, completely unsealed.
"They think they've won," Ben whispered, his voice deadly calm. "They think taking her makes us weak."
"They don't know who they just declared war on," I replied, wiping the blood from my jaw. I walked over to my discarded pistol, picking it up and checking the chamber. "The Vanguard was a war of defense, Ben. We were protecting my father's secrets. We were hiding."
I turned to face him, the dim star-light of the nursery catching the cold, murderous fire in my eyes.
"We are not hiding anymore. I am going to find the Council of the Seven Spheres. I am going to find every single person who touched my daughter, every guard who looked the other way, every banker who funded them. And I am going to kill them all."
Ben unzipped his tuxedo jacket, revealing the C4 still strapped to his chest. "We burn their world to the ground. No mercy. No prisoners."
Suddenly, the secure phone on the nursery desk began to ring.
It wasn't my cell phone. It was the heavily encrypted landline Elias used to communicate with the perimeter guards.
I walked over to the desk and picked up the receiver. I didn't say a word.
"Mrs. Sterling," a young, unfamiliar, and incredibly nervous voice spoke on the other end. "I... I don't know if you're there. My name is Thomas. I'm a low-level data analyst for the Spheres."
I remained silent, gripping the receiver.
"They have her, Mrs. Sterling," the voice whispered urgently. "They're moving her to the primary compound in Geneva. But I... I saw what they plan to do to her. And I want to help you."
I looked at Ben, then down at the silver crown on the desk. The door to the inner sanctum hadn't just been kicked open. It had been blown off its hinges.
"Tell me where to start, Thomas," I said, my voice echoing like a death knell in the empty chateau.
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"We leave for Geneva in one hour," Thomas replied.
I hung up the phone. The game was far from over.
