Chapter 588
Chapter 588:
“I’m in the airport’s sub-grid,” she shouted over the roar of the engine. “I’m patching Harper in. She says Parker has set up a logic bomb in the tower’s communication array p>
Alistair gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles white. He weaved through traffic with surgical precision, missing a tanker truck by inches. “Can you ground it p>
“I can’t override his encryption directly. It’s too complex,” Skye muttered, biting her lip. “Harper, try to flood the tower’s frequency with static. If they can’t get clearance, maybe they’ll hesitate p>
“Working on it, Boss,” Harper’s voice crackled through Skye’s laptop speakers. “But he’s anticipated this. He’s physically disconnected the transponder. He’s flying dark. The tower can’t stop him because he’s not listening to the tower p>
“Damn it.” Skye slammed her hand on the dashboard.
“Then we stop him the old-fashioned way,” Alistair said.
He drifted around the final curve, the airport fence looming ahead. He didn’t brake.
The heavy steel bumper of the Mercedes smashed through the chain-link fence with a screech of tearing metal. The car bucked but kept going, tires spinning on the gravel before finding traction on the tarmac.
Ahead, a sleek white jet was accelerating down the runway.
“He’s at V1,” Alistair cursed. “Rotation speed p>
He floored the accelerator. The car surged forward, chasing the jet. But physics was against them. The Gulfstream’s engines roared, kicking up a storm of heat and dust that battered the windshield.
Skye watched helplessly as the nose of the plane lifted. The wheels left the ground. The jet climbed steeply, banking toward the ocean, a white arrow piercing the gray sky.
Alistair slammed on the brakes. The car skidded sideways, tires smoking, coming to a halt in the middle of the runway.
Silence returned, heavy and mocking.
Alistair stared at the shrinking dot in the sky. He hit the steering wheel once. Hard. The leather cracked under his fist.
“They’re gone,” he said.
His voice was devoid of emotion, which was far scarier than if he had screamed.
𝗧h𝘪𝗌 сo𝗇𝘁𝖾𝗇𝗍 𝗶𝘴 𝘢𝗎t𝗁en𝘵𝗶с 𝖿𝗋𝗈𝗺 𝗯𝘦.𝗰o𝗆
Skye closed her laptop. Her heart was pounding a frantic rhythm against her ribs. “Parker. Victoria. Lucian. It’s an alliance of convenience, but a deadly one p>
Felix’s voice crackled over the car’s comms system. “Boss, news from the prison site p>
“Report,” Alistair said, staring at the horizon.
“It wasn’t a standard ambush,” Felix said, his voice grim. “It was a tactical extraction. Mercenaries. Highly trained. And Parker wiped the satellite footage as it happened. Lucian walked out of that van like he was checking out of a hotel p>
“He planned this,” Skye realized. “Even when we caught him. He knew Parker was his ace in the hole. He let Parker stay hidden in the overseas division, keeping his name clean, just for this moment p>
“Where are they going?” Skye asked, though she already knew.
“Port Valor,” Alistair confirmed. “Parker has been running that division for six months. He’s had time to buy loyalty, rig the systems, and prepare a welcome mat. He needs to physically authorize the final asset transfer from the mainframe in the Thorne Tower there p>
“So we go to Port Valor,” Skye said.
Alistair turned to her. “No. I go to Port Valor. You go back to the estate p>
“Excuse me?” Skye raised an eyebrow.
“Port Valor isn’t a city, Skye. It’s a wound on the map. There is no law. The police are just gang members in uniform. It’s humid, it’s violent, and everyone there has a price on their head. It is not a place for the CEO of Oracle Holdings p>