Chapter 26 - The Whispering Monitor
Before Julian could swing his knife blindly into the strobing light, Daniel swung the bar in a clean, horizontal arc, striking the mercenary across the jaw.
Julian slumped sideways against the hallway console table, crashing into a pile of shattered glass and framed photographs, unconscious.
Daniel stood chest-heaving, the pry bar shaking in his bloody hands.
He dropped the weapon, threw his arms around Mason, and pulled the boy into a fierce, trembling embrace.
"I've got you. I've got you, cheetah," Daniel wept, feeling the boy’s small arms wrap tightly around his neck.
"I used Mommy's whistle, Daddy," Mason whispered into his neck, tears finally streaming down his dusty cheeks. "Mommy said if the bad people came back, the whistle would wake up the house."
"You saved us, Mason. You saved us."
At that moment, the fallen two-way tactical radio clipped to Julian's combat vest crackled with static.
A voice pierced the howling sirens—a voice Daniel recognized with absolute horror.
*“Julian? Julian, answer me! Did you secure the boy?”*
It was Diane Vance.
Daniel set Mason behind him and picked up the radio, pressing the transmit button with a thumb smeared in dirt and blood.
"He failed, Diane," Daniel said, his voice cold, steady, and merciless. "Your son is bleeding out on my floor. And tomorrow morning, the federal marshals will dismantle every single thing you have left."
There was a long, suffocating silence on the other end of the line.
Then came Diane's voice, devoid of all warmth, sounding like a snake whispering from the grave:
May you like
*"You think I’m in prison, Daniel? Turn on the news."*
***
