The Homeless Boy Told the Mafia Boss He Was His Dead Son and One Secret Made the Powerful Man Drop to His Knees

"FACILITY PURGE IN TWO MINUTES AND THIRTY SECONDS."

Vincent didn't run for the elevator. He knew the lift was hardcoded to lock out from the outside once the purge sequence began.

Instead, he turned toward the main control console beneath the gantry.

"Victor!" Vincent shouted into his comms. "I'm at the main terminal! Can you override the self-destruct?"

"I'm looking at the system architecture now, Vincent," Victor’s voice crackled through heavy static. "It’s a hardwired thermal charge in the reactor core! I can't stop the timer from here! You have to manually sever the main coolant line to flood the chamber with liquid nitrogen! It will freeze the detonator circuits!"

"Where is the valve?"

"Behind the central vat! But Vincent... if you open that valve manually, the room will be flooded with sub-zero gas in ten seconds! You'll freeze to death before you reach the stairs!"

Vincent didn't hesitate. He ran toward the central vat.

Behind the massive glass cylinder, glowing with blue synthetic fluid, was a heavy iron wheel covered in frost.

Vincent grabbed the wheel with his bare hands. The iron was so cold it instantly ripped the outer layer of skin from his palms, sticking to his flesh like wet ice.

"ONE MINUTE AND FIFTY SECONDS."

Vincent gritted his teeth, screaming through the pain as he forced the rusted wheel to turn.

INCH BY INCH.

CRACK.

The iron seal broke.

A deafening hiss echoed through the lab as white clouds of liquid nitrogen gas erupted from the pipe. The temperature in the room plunged instantly from sixty degrees to fifty below zero. Frost swept across the floor like a living wave, creeping up Vincent’s boots, freezing his trousers solid.

Vincent kept turning. His fingers lost all sensation. His eyelashes turned to ice. His lungs felt like they were filled with broken glass with every breath he took.

"THIRTY SECONDS."

CLICK.

The red emergency lights suddenly flickered and died. The synthetic voice cut off mid-word. The countdown timer on the wall froze at twenty-two seconds.

The detonator was dead.

Vincent let go of the wheel. He couldn't feel his hands. He fell to his knees on the ice-covered floor, his body shaking violently as his heart struggled to pump blood through his freezing limbs.

"Vincent!"

Footsteps echoed down the stairs.

Harrison and two squad members rushed into the frozen laboratory, carrying thermal blankets and a stretcher.

"He stopped it," Harrison breathed, wrapping the heavy heating pads around Vincent’s torso. "My God, he actually stopped it."

"The kids..." Vincent rasped, his lips white, his voice barely audible. "Did they... get out?"

"All twenty-two of them," Harrison said, tears forming in his eyes as he checked Vincent’s pulse. "They’re on the transports. They're safe, Vincent. Every single one of them."

Vincent looked up at the empty upper gantry where his brother had stood moments before.

"Marcus..." Vincent whispered.

"He escaped to the surface helipad," the squad commander reported, leaning down. "Our snipers outside saw a stealth chopper lift off thirty seconds ago. Heading east toward international waters."