Chapter 19 - THE CONTRACT OF THE FOURTH GENERATION
"Daniel Mercer," Vance’s voice echoed through the intercom system with aristocratic elegance. "You have your father’s stubbornness and your mother’s theatrics. Did you truly believe a few leaked news articles could stop a man who owns the networks?"
Daniel stepped up to the glass, his gun trained directly at Vance’s forehead, though he knew the ballistic glass was three inches thick.
"Let them go, Vance," Daniel said, his voice deadly low. "You take one drop of her blood, and I will hunt you to the ends of the earth. I don't care about your money, your influence, or your mercenaries."
Vance smiled thinly. "Such melodrama. You think I am a vampire stealing a child for amusement? Look at the screen behind you, Daniel."
Daniel glanced at the wall monitor. It showed a live medical feed from an ICU bed in Zurich. A six-year-old girl, frail, bald, and surrounded by life-support machinery, was struggling for breath.
"My granddaughter, Clara," Vance said softly. "Her bone marrow produces antibodies that are eating her own nervous system. Your daughter, Lily, carries the identical genetic signature, but with the enzyme mutation that stabilizes the autoimmune collapse. I offered your mother fifty million dollars to facilitate a painless bone marrow transfer. Evelyn refused. She insisted on playing the martyr. She chained that sweet child to a column to bring the press down upon us."
"Because you weren't going to return her!" Rebecca screamed through her gag, which had slipped down to her chin. "You were going to keep her in a laboratory like a lab rat!"
Vance didn't deny it. He stood up, smoothing his suit jacket.
"A necessary sacrifice for the survival of an empire," Vance said. "Daniel, you have a choice. You drop your weapon, enter this room, and hold your daughter’s hand while my physicians perform the extraction. Do that, and your wife and daughter will be returned to Boston harbor unharmed within forty-eight hours. Refuse, and my security team will flood your airlock with carbon dioxide. Lily will still undergo the procedure, but she will grow up in Zurich an orphan."
Daniel looked at Lily. The little girl was crying silently, her tiny fingers pressing against the glass toward his hand.
On her ankle, the faint white scar from Evelyn’s chain was still visible.
*The chain ended here,* Daniel remembered the plaque in his hallway. *Safety. Freedom. Love without conditions.*
Daniel slowly lowered his weapon and placed it on the floor.
May you like
"Unlock the door, Vance," Daniel said. "I'll do it."
***
