Chapter 6 - Blood on the Boardroom Floor
Gunfire shattered the enclosed darkness of the boardroom, deafening in the confined steel-shuttered space.
Arthur threw his body laterally across the polished mahogany table, knocking Kaelen’s laptop to the floor.
A bullet ripped through the leather upholstery of the executive chair right where Arthur had been standing an instant before.
"Kill him!" Julian screamed in the dark, firing blindly toward the center of the room.
Agent Thorne’s firearm barked twice in rapid succession, followed by a wet, strangled cry of agony from Julian.
"My shoulder! She shot me!" Julian wailed, the heavy thud of his body hitting the carpet echoing off the walls.
Arthur rolled off the edge of the table, his hand finding the heavy solid-brass desk lamp.
Through the strobe-like muzzle flashes, he saw Kaelen lunging forward, a combat knife gleaming in her hand.
She didn't move like a bride; she moved like a shadow, silent, lethal, and completely devoid of wasted motion.
The blade sliced downward, cutting through Arthur’s silk tuxedo jacket and grazing his ribs with fire.
Arthur didn't cry out; the physical pain was nothing compared to the emotional butcher knife she had driven into his soul.
With all the kinetic force of his grief, Arthur swung the brass lamp like a baseball bat.
The heavy metal base collided squarely with Kaelen’s jaw with a sickening crunch.
Kaelen stumbled backward, spitting blood and teeth onto the dark floor, but she did not drop the knife.
"Not bad, Artie," she rasped, circling him in the dark like a predatory wolf. "You finally learned how to fight back."
"I am not your Artie," Arthur hissed, bringing his fists up as he had been trained in his youth.
Thorne emerged from the shadows, sweeping Kaelen’s legs out from under her with a sweeping kick.
Kaelen hit the ground hard, but twisted instantly, driving the heel of her boot directly into Thorne’s wounded forearm.
Thorne gasped in pain, her service weapon kicked across the slick floor into the darkness.
Kaelen mounted Thorne, raising the combat knife with both hands to drive it through the agent’s throat.
Arthur didn't hesitate.
He tackled Kaelen off Thorne, the two of them crashing into the shattered remnants of the laptop.
Kaelen snarled, driving her elbow backward into Arthur’s solar plexus, knocking the wind from his chest.
Arthur gasped for air, his vision tunneling, but his fingers found the broken screen of the laptop.
He grabbed the jagged shard of aluminum casing and drove it into Kaelen’s thigh.
The assassin let out an animalistic howl of rage, her grip on the knife loosening as she rolled away.
Emergency red backup lights suddenly flickered on, bathing the boardroom in an eerie, crimson glow.
Julian was slouched against the far wall, clutching his shattered shoulder, blood soaking through his bespoke suit.
Thorne was on her knees, retrieving her pistol and leveling it directly at Kaelen’s forehead.
Kaelen lay propped against the conference table, clutching her bleeding leg, the combat knife knocked out of reach.
Her chest heaved with ragged breaths, her scarred face painted with crimson blood and gray dust.
"Don't move a muscle, Cross," Thorne ordered, her voice trembling with adrenaline and pain.
Arthur stood slowly, pressing a bloody hand against his grazed ribs, staring down at the woman he had loved.
"The upload," Arthur choked out, pointing toward the shattered laptop on the floor. "Did it finish?"
Kaelen coughed, a grotesque, bloody laugh escaping her lips.
"Look at the screen, little boy," she sneered, pointing a trembling, bloody finger at the crushed monitor.
Arthur knelt among the plastic and glass debris, squinting at the fractured LCD display.
The progress bar was frozen at ninety-nine percent.
Beside it, a single red flashing prompt read: *MANUAL CONFIRMATION REQUIRED VIA ENCRYPTION CIPHER.*
"She couldn't send it without the master password," Arthur said, exhaling a breath he felt like he had held for hours.
"It doesn't matter," Kaelen whispered, her eyes burning with unholy spite.
"Why doesn't it matter?" Thorne demanded, pressing the barrel of her gun harder against Kaelen's forehead.
"Because the ledger wasn't just shipping routes," Kaelen revealed, blood bubbling on her lips.
"What was it, Kaelen?" Arthur asked, leaning down until his face was inches from hers.
"It was a kill list, Arthur," Kaelen whispered, a chilling smile touching her scarred mouth. "And the first name on it was Eleanor Hawthorne."
Arthur’s heart stopped.
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"What did you do to my grandmother?" Arthur screamed, grabbing her by the collar of her tactical shirt.
"The platinum chain on the sapphire," Kaelen whispered, her voice fading into a triumphant hiss. "It was coated in contact neurotoxin."
