American Sniper: The Last Round – Episode 35
The maintenance engine carried the master index deeper beneath the city while Elena Cross searched for the transmitter. Removing it carelessly could alert Mercer or erase the data they needed. The device had been magnetized beneath the rear platform, inches above the flooded rail.
Carl Oliver climbed outside as the train moved through darkness. Water struck his boots while he lowered himself along the frame. Jane Valentine watched from the rear window, fighting the instinct to pull him back. Trust required allowing him to face danger without turning her fear into an order.
The index drive sat inside a pressure cradle connected to a mercury switch. If Carl tilted it, a thermite capsule would destroy the memory core. Elena guided him through disconnecting the cradle rather than touching the drive. Each instruction became harder to hear as the tunnel walls interfered with the radio.
Lewis recognized the device as one he had been forced to service at Red Hollow. A second switch monitored speed. Stopping the train before disarming it would trigger the thermite. Mercer had ensured they must continue toward the trap while trying to preserve the evidence.
Jane moved to the engine controls and kept their speed exact. Floodwater concealed debris across the tracks, forcing her to balance the drive’s sensor against the risk of derailment. Lewis stood beside her, calling distances from an old maintenance chart. Working with her father felt both natural and painfully overdue.
Carl removed the final mounting bolt. The cradle remained level in his hands while the train shook beneath him. Elena instructed him to bridge two contacts with a copper wire from his cleaning kit. The speed sensor went blind, and Jane brought the engine to a controlled stop.
They opened the drive inside a shielded tool box. Its casing contained the master index and a live map of Meridian teams converging on the reclamation plant. Mercer had intended the beacon to summon reinforcements, but it now revealed every route his people planned to use.
Mara spoke through Ruiz’s secure line from custody. She identified the smallest signal group as Mercer’s personal guard and warned that he always kept his hostage near the command route. Her help did not earn trust, yet the map confirmed her description.
Chris diverted the train onto an inspection spur before the main platform. Carl, Jane, and Lewis continued through a drainage passage while Elena remained with the index. If they failed, she would transmit the full map to Ruiz and the press.
The reclamation plant smelled of damp concrete and burned powder. Rebecca’s clue had been exact. Jane found a small scrape on a railing where her daughter’s bracelet had caught, followed by a thread from her jacket. Mercer had not noticed the trail she was leaving.
Voices echoed from the underground test range. Mercer stood behind armored glass with Rebecca beside him. Between them and the control room stretched a hundred-yard lane filled with mechanical targets and pressure sensors. Crossing the floor would activate automated fire from concealed ports.
Mercer demanded Lewis enter alone and carry the cartridge into the center circle. Lewis stepped forward before Carl stopped him. The colonel wanted authentication, but the lane was also a demonstration designed to force the King of Guns into public obedience once again.
Jane examined the target sequence. The sensors responded to weight, not movement, and the mechanical plates rose in a repeating pattern. Her father had taught her a training game built on the same timing. She could guide Carl through the safe spaces if Lewis called the rhythm.
Carl resisted putting Jane within Mercer’s line of fire. She reminded him that Rebecca was her daughter and the pattern came from her childhood. Lewis supported her, saying a spotter’s trust meant accepting information instead of controlling its source. Carl yielded because both of them were right.
The first target rose. Lewis counted, Jane called the open tile, and Carl crossed the lane between bursts from the automated ports. He shot only mechanisms, breaking one firing arm after another. Mercer increased the sequence speed until the three voices had to function as a single thought.
Rebecca watched the pattern and began kicking the base of her chair in time with Lewis’s count. The vibration confused the pressure grid near the control room. One sensor activated early, opening a maintenance shield between Mercer and his guards.
Jane fired through the new gap and shattered the lock on Rebecca’s restraint. Her daughter dropped beneath the console as Carl reached the center circle. Mercer tried to retreat, but Lewis entered the lane behind Carl and cut off the command exit.
The colonel held the index activation remote over a furnace chute. He offered Rebecca in exchange for the cartridge and safe passage. Jane told Rebecca to follow the rhythm they had practiced. On Lewis’s next count, the child rolled through the maintenance shield toward Carl.
Chris triggered the inspection train, sending it through the main platform as a distraction. Meridian guards turned toward the noise, and Carl carried Rebecca back across the disabled lane. Jane covered them while Lewis advanced on the commander who had stolen his life.
Mercer escaped through the command exit but dropped a sealed mission file behind him. Lewis opened it and found Carl’s signature beneath an authorization to use the four-thousand-meter shot as operational bait. The date was five days before the mission—and Carl swore he had never seen the document.