Stone-cold face

LUCIANO'S POV

At Don Mauro’s warehouse now…

I can't stand the feeling of seeing her die again in my mind all over again. The pain I will never allow myself to relieve in it again. “Jesus...” I shove my uncle off on my way as I walk to the glass wall.

Hitting it as hard as I can but nothing happens. I can't stand still as I watch a familiar liquid bottle being pulled out of Cement's pocket.

Cement squeezes a needle into the bottle to draw the liquid into a syringe before injecting it into Keirah's neck. “No……No…….” I shout out loud.

Before Cement can inject fully the content of the syringe into Keirah's neck. I turn around and hold my uncle by the collar. and shout at him. “Tell him to stop right now!”

“Vaffanculo Bullet…”My uncle curses in Italian, agitated with muscles in his jaw twitching as he stands up, holding me back by my collar. He is ready to start a fistfight.

“Fuck you too, Zio,” I speak with a dangerous gaze at both our hands holding each other's collars. I sigh and shake my head in fear. It is my turn now I have turned desperate like him too.

I pull his hands off me. And walk out of his office. I am at a better chance outside this hellhole to finalize the new plan running in my head that has now been put on the urgency with the Agra already in Keirah’s body.

My time to save her is limited to less than thirty minutes before she dies of a hemorrhagic stroke. But he needs the codes. I am sure he can't kill her now.

Keirah's mouth kept shut is what is keeping her alive for now. And what I am counting on. Giving those codes to my uncle is making my uncle a God and that also will get Keirah killed.

He will get her an antidote. But who is to say what my uncle does? He might have the codes already and he is trying to punish me by letting her die in front of me.

Walking out of my uncle's warehouse in fast steps. I feel his eyes on me. And I turned back to see that his goons were escorting me to my helicopter.

And the thought of me walking away and letting Keirah die makes me stop in my tracks. I feel scared, and my whole body is telling me to walk back and fight all of them to death for her at that moment.

No, I need to plan better. My logical reasoning tells me that If she is still bent on not opening her mouth. Also having this much influence over me. She is still too valuable; he is trying to use my humanity against me.

But what if Agra gets to her, and she gives him the codes? What if he was lying and she already gave him the codes?

Even if it means not fulfilling my mother's wish. I will not allow it. He will be unstoppable if he gets hold of them. When I said we would be the last Solans, I meant it. My family will no longer hurt any more people.

No human, including Keirah and my loved ones, James, and Zia, would be safe anywhere in this world if my uncle got hold of those codes. I am burning everything to ashes today.

The blades of the chopper are already spinning. James knows I hate it here. He is always waiting for me on alert every time I walk out of this warehouse.

As I get in the helicopter, James follows behind and slides the door shut before sitting beside me.

I watch my uncle with a stone-cold face as the helicopter rises. Until the chopper is high enough, with no clear ground visibility, that's when I turn around to speak to James.

“Get us high enough that we are invisible to them? And prepare me a parachute?”

“What is going on?” James inquires with a worried face.

“My uncle promised to swear by the code of honor when he lets us go.”

“That's good news…. Why aren't you happy? And what is this?” James points at the parachute suit he is handing me.

“Are you familiar with the neutrophil biochips?”

“No... what are those?”

“Very expensive chips that are implanted in the brain to treat terminal diseases that have not found a cure, like cancer, HIV/AIDS, dementia.”

“Are they drugs?”

I put on the parachute suit as I continued to explain to him. “No… just chips that force the body to produce an immune system to heal itself. They stimulate the brain, and the brain stimulates the body to produce the feelings and the antibodies the body wants.”

“You are not making sense. What does it have to do with you putting on a parachute suit?”

“It's Keirah.”

“What have your uncle and Keirah had to do with this?” He taps on me to halt my movements as I force myself to continue putting on the parachute suit.

“I am running out of time, James.”

“Make sense of it. Isn't she dead already?”

“No, she is not. I need to get down right now and save her…. Hence, the parachute. And why?... Do you remember the project I didn't understand where he bought the rights to the biochip that were developed for NASC?”

“Yes.”

“I have it all figured out…. He wants to develop Agra, but now it will not be a solution but a biochip in people's heads…. Keirah is the original developer.

“She sold the chips to NASC. But they can't do anything to modify them. He needs her to give him the codes so that he can modify the chips into what he wants.”

“What do you mean?”

“Come on, James, you are wasting time. She will die or give him the codes if I am not down there in the next ten minutes… You have seen what happens with Agra in thirty minutes, right?!”

James pays attention to me with full concentration.

“He injected her with Agra in front of my face… but it's a trick to make me help him give up the codes. Now he will have control of people's brains like what he does with Agra, and he can force them to behave or do what he wants.

“He will switch minds on and off. Control minds with something like mind compulsion. If you get what I mean, it is like becoming a driver of an automatic car. And in this scenario, he will be the sole driver and humans will be his cars.”

“That is insane. He will have the world in his hands if he gets her to do that.”

“I must stop him. We must stop him. And I must save her first. Wait for me in thirty minutes at these coordinates.” I flash the coordinates on his watch.

“If I don't show up, I will meet you at Casablanca.” I walk to the chopper door.

“Wait… let's go together. You are not safe out there alone.”

I smile and open the release handle, jumping out and allowing myself to float in the air before pulling down the parachute.

The parachute drops in a small bush just in front of the last fence to my uncle's warehouse.

The moment I step down, I tear off my jacket and the parachute.

Green and heavy red flashed all over the warehouse.

Accompanied by a loud security breach, sirens buzzing all over the place nonstop.

Something is happening inside my uncle's warehouse.

I see my uncle's goons running around. Dozens of them are everywhere.

This will complicate my plan.

Just as I am reevaluating my plan to go in and save her and after kill everyone and burn everything to ashes. Keirah's scent hits me.

And I feel her too close. As I turned around, a figure out of nowhere ran towards me at high speed. Studying the figure up close.

It is Keirah…

It gets to me why the whole commotion. She has escaped.

Keirah has escaped from my uncle's warehouse.

Keirah is running with all her might to me. I take steps to her and abruptly pull her towards the small bush.

Hugging her from behind and pulling her to hide.

Two bodyguards walk outside the last fence with my uncle's dogs on their leashes as they search everywhere, and the dogs barking nonstop.

Keirah is breathing too loudly, and I quickly bring my hand to her mouth, shutting her mouth up.

I watch her turn her head to me with scared eyes as I signal for her to keep quiet.

She collapses on my chest, tears streaming down her face. I remove my hand from her mouth as she turns to face me and removes herself from my embrace.

She speaks in between tears flying down her face. Her eyes are very red. Shaking in fear as she tries to make the words come out of her mouth. “Please help me.” She pauses and raises her pleading eyes at me.

I stare at her longingly as I open my mouth. I have been waiting for this chance for her to choose me. I search for the most calming voice in me as I speak to her. “Where would you want to go?”

I never knew the voice existed in me. But I desperately want to hold her, comfort her, and save her. “AWAY FROM HERE!” she shouts in tears.

And I abruptly bring my hands to her mouth. But I am late.

“WOOF.... WOOF!”

We both turn around to the sound of my uncle's shepherd dogs barking our way. Delivering to us the worst news.

They found us.