Chapter 10 : The Bridge Of Ash.

POV: Elena

The cold wind coming off the river whipped my wet hair across my face. I kept my hands steady on the rifle, my eyes locked on the driver's window.

"Step out of the van!" I yelled into the megaphone, my voice tearing through the sound of the rain. "Do it now or I will fire into your engine!"

"Dr. Lin, you are committing a federal crime," Logan muttered from the driver's seat of the armored truck beneath me, his eyes darting to the side mirrors. "If they call for backup, we have about three minutes before reinforcements swarm this bridge."

"I don't care," I said. "They are going to execute him, Logan. I am not letting them take another step."

The driver's door of the transport van slowly opened. The director of the security bureau stepped down into the mud, holding his hands up, though his face was twisted in a smirk.

"You really think you can play hero, Dr. Lin?" the director called out, his voice loud over the engine hum. "You're a scientist. You don't have the stomach for this."

Before he could finish his sentence, the rear doors of the van rattled violently. A loud, solid thud echoed as the metal dented outward. Alexander was kicking the lock from the inside.

"Step away from the van!" I screamed at the director, my finger tightening on the trigger. "Now!"

"Get down!" Logan yelled suddenly, grabbing my ankle and pulling me hard off the hood of the truck.

Something slammed into the windshield of our armored truck, right where my head had been a second ago. Glass shattered everywhere. The loud crack of the impact bounced off the rusted steel girders of the bridge.

The director laughed, pulling a weapon from his coat as three more agents jumped out of the van, spreading out toward us.

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POV: Alexander

The door finally gave way under the heel of my boot. I threw my weight against the metal, tumbling out onto the wet asphalt of the bridge. My hands were still cuffed behind my back, but I scrambled to my feet, my eyes instantly scanning the chaos.

Elena was on the ground behind the armored truck, Logan shielding her as chaos erupted around us.

"Elena! Get back in the truck!" I roared, running toward her.

An agent stepped into my path, raising his weapon. I didn't slow down. I threw my shoulder into his chest, the force of my momentum sending him over the low guardrail of the bridge. He screamed as he disappeared into the dark, rushing river below.

"Alex!" Elena yelled. She didn't stay behind the truck. She ran straight toward me, her hands reaching out to grab my shirt, dragging me behind the heavy steel wheel of Logan's transport.

She was crying, her face covered in rain and soot, but her hands were warm and fierce as she checked my body. "Are you hurt? Did they get you?"

"I'm fine," I panted, leaning my forehead against hers for a split second. The smell of her jasmine scent, mixed with the sharp odor of the river, filled my senses. "Where is Leo?"

"He's locked in the back of the truck with Logan's men," she said, her fingers frantically searching my pockets. "Where is the key for these cuffs?"

"The director has it," I said, nodding toward the front of the bridge.

The noise suddenly stopped.

A tall, thin man in a pristine black trench coat stepped out from the shadow of the bridge's main steel arch. He wasn't holding a weapon, but the federal agents instantly lowered their guns, stepping aside to let him pass.

He looked exactly like me, but his eyes were a pale, glassy blue.

"You always were a loud talker, Alexander," the man said, his voice carrying a soft, aristocratic lilt that made my stomach turn.

I stood up slowly, keeping Elena behind me. "Julian."

"Hello, little brother," Julian Vance smiled, pulling a gold key from his pocket and tossing it casually into the mud at my feet. "You can have the handcuffs off. It doesn't change the math. The board of directors voted ten minutes ago. You are officially erased from the family registry. You don't exist."

"You faked your death fifteen years ago for a corporate coup?" I asked, my voice dropping into a dangerous whisper. "Grandfather knew you were alive."

"Of course he knew," Julian said, taking a step closer. "He is the one who sent me to Geneva. He wanted to see if you would build the empire or if you would let it rot. You did well, Alex. But then you met Elena. You let your heart get soft. You let her carry a child that threatens our sovereign contract with Astoria."

"The contract is dead, Julian," Elena said, stepping out from behind my shoulder. "I have the genetic blueprints. Your partners in Geneva can't manufacture the cure without my approval."

"We don't need your approval, sister," Julian said, his smile widening into something genuinely monstrous.

He pulled a small, familiar blue digital watch from his pocket. Leo's watch.

"Mark was very cheap to buy," Julian said, tossing the watch up and catching it in his palm. "The data is already uploading to our server in Zurich. We have the cure, we have the Vance name, and we have the federal government in our pocket. You two are just ghosts on a bridge."

"You think you won?" I asked, my blood running hot as I looked down at the key in the mud. "You don't know me, Julian. I don't care about the registry."

I dropped to my knees, grabbed the gold key, and unlocked the cuffs in a single second. I stood up, my bare hands clenching into fists, my eyes locking onto his.

"Alex, look at the helicopters," Elena whispered, her hand trembling as she pointed to the gray sky.

Three blacked-out military choppers were rising from the riverbank, their searchlights blinding us as they hovered over the bridge. But they didn't have the Astorian gold crest, and they didn't have the Vance logo.

They had a giant red circle painted on the side. The symbol of the Eastern Syndicate.

"What is that?" Julian's smile vanished, his eyes darting to the sky in sudden confusion. "That's not my security detail."

The side doors of the lead helicopter opened.

A man with a thick, white beard and a tailored dark suit stood at the edge, holding a megaphone. His face looked exactly like the portrait in Elena's locket.

"Arthur Sterling," Diana's voice came from the radio inside Logan's truck, sounding completely terrified. "He found us."

The man with the white beard looked down at the bridge, his eyes bypassing Julian, bypassing me, and landing straight on Elena.

"Elena, my darling," Arthur Sterling's voice echoed over the roaring wind of the blades. "Your grandmother told me you were dead. I see she lied. Step away from the Vance brothers. My men are going to destroy this bridge in thirty seconds."

"Dad?" Elena whispered, her face turning completely white.

Before anyone could move, a red light appeared on Julian's chest. A second light settled on my own forehead.

Julian looked up at the helicopter, his face tensing. "Arthur! We have a treaty! The Vance-Sterling merger is already signed!"

"The treaty was with my mother-in-law, Julian," Arthur's voice replied, cold and final. "And I hate my family. Goodbye, boys."

A sudden, high-pitched whistling sound filled the air as something streaked from beneath the helicopter, heading straight for the center span of the bridge.