Chapter 16 - The Charred Convoy
Julian shoved Lily behind the reinforced steel pantry door, locking it from the outside and slipping the key into his pocket. "Stay here, Lily! Don't make a sound until Daddy comes back!"
He sprinted back up the stairs, drawing a concealed Glock 19 from the holster mounted beneath the hallway sideboard.
When he reached the nursery, the scene was horrific.
Dr. Finch lay slumped against the wall, clutching his shoulder where a bullet had torn through his clavicle, crimson pooling around his tweed trousers. On the floor, Marcus Kane was not dead—he was writhing, clutching his leg where Martha had shot him with the guard’s dropped service pistol.
Martha stood over Marcus, the smoking gun held with steady, ruthless precision.
"He tried to reach for his backup ankle piece, Julian," Martha said, her voice chillingly calm, completely detached from the terrified housekeeper she had been moments before. "I couldn't let him leave this room alive."
"Don't shoot him!" Julian shouted, raising a hand. "We need him alive! He knows how Victoria is coordinating this from prison! He knows who funded the operation!"
Marcus Kane coughed up blood onto the floorboards, letting out a wet, rattling laugh. "It’s too late, Sterling... look at your phone. Look at the news..."
Julian’s private phone was buzzing frantically on his hip. He snatched it out, keeping his weapon trained on Marcus.
A high-priority alert flashed across the screen from the Superintendent of the New York State Department of Corrections:
**MASS CASUALTY EVENT - PRISON TRANSPORT AMBUSH - BEAR MOUNTAIN BRIDGE.**
Julian tapped the notification with a thumb that trembled uncontrollably. The live news feed cut to aerial helicopter footage of the Bear Mountain Bridge over the Hudson River.
A Department of Corrections armored prisoner transport bus lay flipped on its side, fully engulfed in roaring, uncontrollable flames. Emergency vehicles surrounded the bridge, their red and blue strobe lights painting the thick fog in apocalyptic colors.
The news anchor’s voice crackled through the phone speaker:
*“...We are receiving preliminary reports that the armored transport carrying high-profile inmate Victoria Sterling was ambushed twenty minutes ago by an armed strike team using military-grade thermite charges. State troopers report multiple fatalities among the transport officers. Prison officials state that inmate Victoria Sterling's cell compartment was blasted open from the outside. An unidentifiable charred body has been recovered from the interior, but authorities cannot confirm whether the body belongs to Sterling or a guard. I repeat: Victoria Sterling may be at large, armed, and extremely dangerous...”*
Julian lowered the phone, the color draining completely from his face.
Marcus Kane smiled through his bloody teeth. "She told you, Julian. The court couldn't hold her. A cage couldn't hold her. And now, she’s coming home."
Before Julian could move, Dr. Finch groaned from the floor, his voice a ragged whisper. "Julian... the journal... beneath the cellar. She didn't break out to run away... she broke out to get Claire's black ledger. It’s the only evidence that can send the Board to federal prison..."
Martha Vance slowly lowered her pistol. She looked at Julian, her face unreadable in the flickering emergency lights.
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"Mr. Julian," Martha said, her voice dropping into a register that sent ice water down Julian’s spine. "The sub-basement keys have been missing from the kitchen board since yesterday morning."
***
