Chapter 10: The Sniper's Laser
The crimson dot danced like a tiny drop of blood across the bridge of Leah’s nose.
The icy rain poured down her face, stinging her eyes, but she did not blink, nor did she lower her weapon.
Her finger rested on the trigger with steady, calculated pressure.
"You think a sniper in the dark scares me, Ryan?" Leah asked, her voice dangerously calm.
"That sniper has a clear line of sight on my heart, not yours," Ryan replied with a confident smirk, taking another step closer.
"If I die tonight, the encrypteddead-man’s switch on my server automatically releases every single state secret, bank transfer, and political bribe to international media outlets within sixty seconds."
Leah’s eyes narrowed.
She knew the bluff was entirely possible.
Men like Ryan and Viktor never left their survival to chance; they built safety nets out of collateral damage.
"You think you're holding all the cards, don't you?" Leah murmured, shifting her stance slightly to balance her weight in the mud.
"What makes you think the dead-man’s switch hasn't already been redirected to my legal team?"
Ryan’s confident smirk faltered for a fraction of a second.
His eyes darted nervously toward Leah’s pocket, where her smartphone was hidden.
"You’re lying," Ryan snapped, his voice losing a fraction of its composure.
"Nobody has the decryption keys except Viktor—and Viktor is currently locked in a federal black site."
"Viktor was an amateur compared to my father," Leah countered smoothly.
"And you, Ryan... you were never anything more than a rented tool."
Before Ryan could react to the insult, a sharp, deafening crack split the air above them.
It wasn't a sniper rifle.
It was a flash-charge grenade detonating directly on the overhead gantry crane.
A blinding cascade of white sparks rained down from the catwalk like a metallic waterfall, illuminating the entire railyard in a harsh, flickering glare.
The red laser dot on Leah’s forehead vanished instantly as the sniper on the gantry cried out in pain, blinded by the sudden flash.
Ryan spun around in absolute panic, shielding his eyes with his forearms.
"What is that? Who’s out there?" Ryan screamed over the crackling sparks.
From the fog behind the rusted boxcars, heavy footsteps crunched against the gravel.
A squad of armed men in unmarked tactical gear emerged from the shadows, their weapons raised—not pointing at Leah, but locking dead-sight onto Ryan.
At the front of the squad walked Agent Sarah Lin, her service pistol drawn and aimed squarely at Ryan’s chest.
"Drop your weapon, Ryan Vance," Agent Lin commanded, her voice cutting through the rain like a knife.
"You’re under arrest for high treason, conspiracy, and domestic terrorism."
Ryan stumbled backward, his eyes wide with utter disbelief as he stared at Sarah.
"No... no, you're on our payroll! We cleared your accounts in Zurich!" Ryan yelled, his voice cracking into panic.
Sarah didn't even blink.
"I told you, Ryan," Sarah replied coldly as she stepped forward and shoved him to his knees in the mud.
"Some of us work for a much higher authority."
As the heavy steel handcuffs clicked onto Ryan’s wrists for the second time in twenty-four hours, Leah slowly lowered her firearm.
She holstered the weapon, wiping a stray drop of rain from her cheek.
Just as the tactical team moved to secure the area, Sarah handed Leah a small, encrypted flash drive pulled from Ryan’s coat pocket.
"This is the master ledger," Sarah said quietly.
"It contains the name of the ultimate mastermind—the person who funded Viktor, manipulated Chloe, and set up your entire family."
Leah took the flash drive, her fingers brushing the cold metal casing.
She plugged it directly into her tactical tablet.
May you like
The screen flickered to life, displaying a single, highly classified personnel file.
Leah stared at the photograph on the screen, her breath catching in her throat as she read the name of the person pulling every string from the very beginning.
