American Sniper: The Last Round – Episode 34
Jane Valentine ran from the hospital room before Ruiz finished restraining Mara Vale. The tracker on the master index had shifted to the apartment where Rebecca waited with Lewis. Every choice Jane had made to keep her daughter outside the fight had led Meridian directly to her.
Carl Oliver kept pace beside her while Chris called Alex. The line connected, but only static answered. Elena had lost the apartment cameras and all local power. Mercer had not merely discovered the refuge; he had taken control of every system around it.
Ruiz could not abandon Mara or Matthew, so he sent two trusted agents after them. Mara warned that they would arrive too late. Mercer had spent decades studying Carl’s reactions, and the hospital signal was designed to pull the strongest defenders away from the child.
At the apartment, Lewis woke to the soft click of a suppressed weapon. Colonel David Mercer stood inside the doorway with three men behind him. Alex lay near the kitchen, conscious but bleeding from a strike to the head. Rebecca sat beside him, holding pressure against the wound exactly as Chris had taught her.
Mercer greeted Lewis like a friend returning from a long deployment. He claimed Meridian had preserved Lewis’s life when the military would have left him on the ridge. Lewis answered that captivity was not rescue and obedience was not gratitude.
The colonel wanted the brass cartridge, but Jane had taken it to the hospital. His backup objective was Lewis himself. With Mara detained, only Lewis could authenticate the master index and recover control of Meridian’s frozen accounts.
Rebecca stepped between Mercer and her grandfather. She said the King of Guns was coming, repeating the faith that had once made adults laugh at the range. Mercer lowered his weapon and told her legends always arrived after someone else paid the price.
Lewis saw the same arrogance that had doomed their final mission. Mercer expected frightened people to choose only between the options he provided. Lewis leaned against the wall as though weakness had overcome him, bringing his hand closer to the gas valve behind the stove.
He opened the valve without igniting it. The odor spread through the apartment, forcing Mercer’s men to avoid firing. One spark could turn the room into an explosion. Lewis had not created an escape, but he had removed their willingness to use guns.
Alex rose despite the blood in his eyes and attacked the nearest guard. Rebecca crawled beneath the table while Lewis drove Mercer into the wall. Captivity had damaged his strength, not his ability to recognize an opening. The room erupted into a close, desperate struggle.
Mercer recovered first and seized Rebecca. Holding a knife instead of a firearm, he pulled her toward the back stairs. Lewis froze because the gas had turned every gun into a danger to the child. Mercer smiled at the trap his own enemies had created.
Carl and Jane reached the alley as a black vehicle tore away from the building. Through the rear window, Jane saw Rebecca fighting against Mercer. Carl raised his pistol but lowered it when the car crossed behind pedestrians. A shot without a safe background violated every principle he trusted.
Lewis stumbled from the apartment seconds later, furious at his failing body. Jane wanted to blame him because fear needed somewhere to land. Then she saw Alex carried out behind him and understood how hard both men had fought to keep Rebecca alive.
Mercer contacted them through Rebecca’s phone. He demanded Lewis and the cartridge at an abandoned military proving ground by noon. If any agency approached, he would move Rebecca into Meridian’s international network where no public investigation could reach her.
Jane asked to hear her daughter. Rebecca came on the line and said she was not hurt. Her voice sounded too measured for a terrified child, and she repeated that the car smelled like Grandpa’s old workshop after rain. Lewis recognized the description as her attempt to identify a location involving wet gunpowder and machine oil.
The stated proving ground was a decoy. An ammunition-reclamation plant lay twelve miles east, recently flooded after a storm. Mercer had trained at the facility before it closed. Rebecca had given them the true destination without alerting him.
Mara refused to cooperate at the hospital until Ruiz showed her the call record. Mercer had abandoned her and recovered the index. If he escaped, she would carry the public blame while he rebuilt Meridian elsewhere. Betrayal made her willing to offer one fact: the plant contained a subterranean test range accessible only by rail.
Elena mapped the freight lines while Chris secured a maintenance engine. Lewis insisted on going despite Jane’s objection. Mercer wanted him, and an exchange could place him close enough to Rebecca to act. Jane knew forbidding him would repeat every decision made over her head.
Carl checked the brass cartridge and his limited ammunition. He promised Jane that they would retrieve Rebecca without trading Lewis’s freedom for hers. Jane replied that promises meant little unless he trusted her inside the plan. This time, he handed her the spare rifle and included her in every detail.
As the maintenance engine entered the flooded rail tunnel, Elena detected another signal aboard their train. The master index was transmitting from beneath the rear platform. Mercer had planted it there before they left the apartment, turning their rescue team into the beacon guiding Meridian’s remaining forces straight to them.