Chapter 7 - The Final Stand
The firefight inside Warehouse 19 was fast, brutal, and decisive.
Taking fire from high above, Kane’s men panicked. They scattered behind shipping containers and forklift trucks, firing blindly into the dark rafters.
"MOVE! COVER THE DON!" Vance barked as we repelled down heavy climbing ropes from the ceiling, landing hard on the concrete floor with weapons raised.
Daniel fought like a man possessed. Despite eleven months of captivity, his muscle memory was flawless. He scooped up a fallen rifle from a dead guard, rolled behind a heavy steel crate, and took out two advancing enforcers with precise, disciplined bursts.
I advanced through the center aisle, my shotgun roaring, blasting through wood and steel, driving Kane’s remaining guards back toward the river docks.
"KANE!" I roared, my voice cutting through the gunfire. "THIS ENDS TONIGHT!"
Through the haze of gunsmoke, I saw Kane running toward the open dock doors at the rear of the warehouse, where a high-speed twin-engine speedboat was idling against the pier.
He was fleeing.
"Julian! He's heading for the boat!" Daniel shouted, laying down suppressive fire to keep two remaining snipers pinned down behind a crane.
"Cover me!" I yelled.
I sprinted down the long pier, my boots slamming against the wooden planks.
Kane reached the pier, leaped onto the deck of the speedboat, and hit the throttle! The twin 400-horsepower engines roared to life, churning the dark river water into white foam as the boat began pulling away from the dock!
Kane turned back, raising a heavy nickel-plated revolver, a crazed, desperate smile on his face. "TOO LATE, VALE! I'LL BE IN INTERNATIONAL WATERS BEFORE YOUR FRIENDS CLEAR THE BUILDING!"
He aimed straight at my chest and pulled the trigger!
CLICK.
The hammer fell on an empty chamber.
Kane stared at his weapon in horror. He had spent his last round during the warehouse assault.
I reached the end of the pier, digged my heels into the wet wood, dropped my empty shotgun, and drew the sleek rose-gold Patek Philippe watch from my inner pocket—the watch I had left on my desk eighteen hours ago.
I didn't shoot him.
I threw the heavy, solid-gold timepiece with all my strength straight into the speedboat's open stern engine air-intake!
CLANK-CRUNCH-SCREECH!
The heavy gold watch dropped straight into the spinning supercharger belt of the starboard engine! Metal teeth shattered! The belt snapped with the sound of a gunshot, and the starboard engine erupted into a blinding cloud of black smoke and fire!
The sudden torque pulled the boat violently to the right, crashing it hard into the steel support pilings of the adjacent pier!
The speedboat stalled, wedged tightly against the rusted iron girders, smoke pouring from the ruined engine hatch.
Victor Kane was thrown against the windshield, dazed, bleeding from a gash on his forehead.
I stepped off the pier onto the ruined deck of the boat, stepping over the burning wreckage.
Kane scrambled backward, coughing smoke, looking up at me with wide, terrified eyes.
"Julian... please..." Kane gasped, backing into the corner of the stern. "We... we were partners once! I can give you tens of millions! Off-shore accounts! Everything!"
I stood over him, tall, imposing, illuminated by the orange glow of the engine fire.
I reached into my coat, pulled out the small white heart pill Caleb had given me in my study—the second pill I had kept in my pocket.
I dropped the small pill onto Kane's lap.
"What... what is this?" Kane stuttered, staring down at the tiny white tablet.
"That," I said softly, "is the medicine of a child you tried to destroy. A boy who walked past twenty thousand dollars because he cared whether a stranger lived or died."
I looked down at Kane with absolute, unyielding contempt.
"You spent your whole life chasing power, Victor. But you never understood what real strength was."
Behind me, the sound of federal sirens echoed across the Brooklyn waterfront. Dozens of blue and red lights cut through the fog as FBI tactical teams and Harbor Police boats swarmed Dock 19.
Vance had transmitted the entire contents of Daniel's encrypted flash drive directly to the U.S. Attorney General twenty minutes ago.
Victor Kane wasn't going to die tonight.
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He was going to spend the rest of his miserable life inside a federal cage, stripped of his wealth, his name, and his freedom.
I turned my back on him and walked away into the morning light.
