The interior of the Watson-01 Gulfstream was silent, but it wasn't a peaceful silence. It was the heavy, pressurized quiet that exists inside a bomb right before the timer hits zero.
I sat in the master chair, my knuckles white as I gripped a glass of neat bourbon I hadn't even tasted. On the screen in front of me, a thermal heat map of the Hanamitchi estate flickered.
"Twenty minutes to Tokyo airspace," the pilot's voice crackled over the intercom. He sounded terrified. He should be. I'd told him if we didn't break every speed record in the books, I'd throw him out of the cockpit myself.
The Breaking Point
"Keifer."
I didn't look up. I knew Angelo's voice. He was sitting across from me, cleaning a customized silver handgun with a cold, rhythmic precision.
"She's strong, Keifer," Angelo said, his voice tight. "Jay is a Mariano. We don't break easily."He dragged her by her hair, Angelo," I said. My voice didn't sound like mine. It was a low, guttural rasp—the sound of the "Monster" my father, Kizer, had spent years trying to breed into me. "The satellite feed caught it. He dragged her like she was nothing."
I closed my eyes, and all I could see was the red hair of Yuri Hanamitchi. I had known the Hanamitchis were desperate. I knew they were sliding down the Forbes list while the Watsons climbed. But I never thought he'd be stupid enough to commit suicide by stealing my sun.I'm not just going to kill him," I whispered, and the ice in my glass cracked under the pressure of my grip. "I'm going to dismantle his life piece by piece. I want him to watch as I buy his company, burn his family home, and erase his name from the history books. And then, when he has absolutely nothing left... I'll show him what happens when you touch a Watson's wife."
The War Room in Flight
Erdix and Rory were hunched over their laptops in the back of the cabin. The blue light of their screens made them look like ghosts.
Keifer!" Erdix called out, his voice cracking. "I've bypassed the Hanamitchi internal security. I'm patching into the bedroom cameras."
I stood up so fast my chair hit the bulkhead. I was at his shoulder in a second. "Put it on the main screen."
The image was grainy, black and white infrared. It was a room with no windows. A cell. My heart stopped when I saw the figure curled on the floor.
Jay.
She looked so small. So vulnerable. But then I saw him. Yuri was standing over her, the leather crop in his hand. I watched as he reached down and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him.
I didn't realize I was screaming until Angelo grabbed my shoulders to keep me from lunging at the screen.
"HE'S TOUCHING HER!" I roared, the sound echoing through the jet. "ERDIX, GIVE ME A FREQUENCY! PATCH ME INTO THE ROOM'S INTERCOM
The Voice of God
"Done," Erdix whispered, his fingers flying. "You're live in that room. Three... two... one."
I leaned into the mic, my face inches from the screen where Yuri was leaning toward my wife.
"Yuri."
On the screen, Yuri froze. He looked around the room, confused. Jay's head snapped up, her eyes wide, searching for the source of my voice.
"Look at the camera, you pathetic coward," I hissed. My voice was the sound of a funeral bell. "I am ten minutes away. I can see your hand on her. If you don't take it off her in the next three seconds, I will ensure that the hand is the first thing I remove from your body when I land."
On the screen, I saw Jay's lips move. She whispered my name.
"I'm coming, Jay," I said, my voice dropping to a promise that shook the very air of the plane. "Kill him if you have to, sweetheart. I'll clean up the mess."
I turned to the cabin, where the rest of Section E—Denzel, Calix, Felix—were already checking their gear.
"We don't wait for the stairs to lower," I commanded. "We fast-rope onto the roof. Anyone who stands between me and that room dies. No warnings. No mercy."
I looked back at the screen. Yuri had backed away from Jay, looking shaken, but the rage in his eyes was growing.
The Monster was no longer in the sky. It was hovering over his house.