Chapter 15 - THE HARVESTER
"Theo, eyes closed! Hold your breath!" Claire screamed, pulling her wool sweater up over her son's mouth and nose.
The world erupted into chaos. Daniel fired three rounds through the front entryway as a heavy boot kicked the wooden door off its hinges. The deafening cracks of the 9mm rounds echoed through the small house, followed by a guttural curse from the porch.
"Back door! Now!" Daniel roared, grabbing Claire by the arm and shoving her toward the mudroom.
They burst out into the damp, salty wind of the backyard. Gunfire ripped through the clapboard siding behind them, splinters of painted wood exploding into the air like shrapnel. Arthur Vance sprinted ahead of them toward the gravel alleyway, but before he could reach his rusted sedan, a sound like a whip crack echoed across the harbor.
Arthur's chest caved inward. He collapsed onto the gravel without a sound, a dark crimson stain blooming across his gray suit jacket.
Fifty yards away, standing on the edge of the rocky seawall, was a man holding a suppressed rifle.
He wore a tailored charcoal overcoat that billowed in the Atlantic wind. His face was gaunt, his cheekbones jutting out unnaturally under paper-thin, jaundiced skin, but the cold, cruel arrogance in his gray eyes was unmistakable. It was Julian Mercer. He looked like a walking corpse, sustained only by sheer spite and bottomless wealth.
Julian lowered the rifle and smiled, his pale lips pulling back over yellowed teeth.
"Hello, little brother," Julian’s voice carried over the sound of the crashing waves, amplified by a small personal microphone on his lapel. "You always were so sentimental, Daniel. Playing house with my property."
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"He's not your property! He's my son!" Daniel yelled, stepping between Julian and Claire, raising his handgun with both hands.
"Biologically, he doesn't share a single strand of DNA with you, you pathetic substitute," Julian sneered, coughing weakly into a black silk handkerchief, leaving flecks of dark blood on the fabric. "Eleanor thought she could drown my cure. She thought if the boy was at the bottom of the sea, I would die quietly in the dark. But you fished him out for me, Claire. You kept my heart beating. Now bring him to me, and I might let you live long enough to watch the transplant."
