Chapter 4 4

Silence followed the gunshot.

Everyone waited for Gideon to fall. He didn't. He stood there, the blood trickling down his cheek, looking bored.

The Davidson guards raised their rifles.

Then the first man coughed.

It was a wet, hacking sound. He dropped his rifle. It clattered loudly on the floor. He grabbed his throat, his eyes bulging.

Then the second man dropped to his knees. He was clawing at his tactical vest, gasping for air that wouldn't come.

Gasper stared down from the balcony. His elite squad was falling like dominoes. There was no blood. No wounds. Just instant, incapacitating weakness.

Gideon moved.

He wasn't looking at the guards. He sprinted to the stage.

Chelsea was trying to crawl away. Gideon grabbed her wrist and yanked her up.

"Open," he commanded.

She struggled. He squeezed her jaw. The pain forced her mouth open.

He dropped a small white pill onto her tongue. He clamped her mouth shut and stroked her throat. It was a reflex. She swallowed.

Chelsea gagged. She shoved him away, clawing at her mouth.

"What did you do?" she shrieked. "What is that?"

Gideon leaned in. His eyes were dark voids.

"Judas Kiss," he whispered. "It contains a protein marker. Inert for now. But if you betray the contract again, it binds to your nervous system. The pain will be... educational."

It was a lie. The pill was a harmless composite, but it contained a trace isotope that would show up as an anomaly on any standard scan, confusing any doctor she hired without actually harming her.

"If you ever try to break the contract again," Gideon said, his voice smooth as silk, "the toxin activates. You'll bleed out from every pore."

Chelsea collapsed. She was sobbing, hysterical, clutching her stomach.

Julian saw her fall. The rage overtook the pain in his ribs.

He raised the gun again. "I'll kill you!"

He fired blindly.

The bullet went wide. It hit the chain of the massive crystal chandelier above them.

The chain snapped.

Gravity took over. Two tons of crystal and steel plummeted.

It crashed between the Singleton shields and the Davidson guards. Shards of glass flew like shrapnel. Dust billowed up.

Gasper was coughing now. He held a handkerchief to his mouth.

"Gas!" Gasper wheezed. "Masks! Put on your masks!"

The Davidson guards who were still standing fumbled for their masks. Their movements were sluggish, uncoordinated.

Gideon walked back to Celestia. She was staring at him with horror. The gas hadn't reached her yet; the airflow was pushing it away from the door.

"You did this?" she whispered.

"Sedatives," Gideon said. "Short half-life. They'll wake up with a headache."

A deep, rhythmic thumping sound vibrated through the floor. It grew louder.

Helicopter rotors.

Bright, blinding searchlights cut through the tall windows, washing the ballroom in stark white light.

A voice boomed from a loudspeaker outside.

"THIS IS THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. DROP YOUR WEAPONS. THIS AREA IS UNDER MILITARY LOCKDOWN."

Gasper's face went gray. The police he could buy. The FBI he could stall. The military? That was a different beast.

Gideon looked at the window. He wiped the blood from his cheek.

"Finally," he muttered.