American Sniper: The Last Round – Episode 45
Rebecca appeared on the command screens beside Chris Redford and Alex Westin, unaware that cameras watched the temporary office. Mercer held the dead-man switch loosely enough to show confidence. He did not need guards beside the child if fear could keep everyone at Halcyon obedient. Jane saw Rebecca sorting colored markers at a desk and felt the distance between them as sharply as a physical wound.
Jane forced herself to study the image instead of reacting to it. The office clock showed the correct time, and rain tapped the window, matching weather reports near the range. The feed was live. Mercer had breached another place they believed secure.
Chris shifted slightly in his chair and tapped two fingers against his knee. The movement repeated in groups of four, an emergency signal taught during the range lockdown. He knew about the camera and was trying to communicate without alerting whoever monitored them. His expression remained relaxed for Rebecca’s sake, turning a silent warning into part of an ordinary conversation.
Lewis translated the pattern from the ridge. Chris signaled one intruder, east window, no visible weapon. Alex sat near Rebecca with his injured shoulder turned toward the door, positioning himself to move if given warning.
Elena searched the Halcyon network for the office feed. It traveled through a portable satellite relay, while the dead-man switch transmitted on a separate frequency. Mercer had to maintain pressure to prevent the remote attack. Disarming him physically risked releasing the switch.
Mara whispered that his device included a three-second delay for accidental release. Mercer always demanded a margin for himself. Carl could disable the relay during that interval if he identified its antenna on the command platform.
The antenna extended along Mercer’s sleeve, disguised as part of his watchband. Carl had a clear shot through the service opening, but heat shimmer moved the apparent position several inches. A miss would make Mercer release the switch deliberately.
Jane kept Mercer talking. She asked whether threatening Rebecca was the legacy he imagined after decades of controlling heroes from the shadows. He answered that history remembered outcomes, not methods. Once the ledger vanished, every accusation against him would look like a frightened family’s conspiracy. Jane heard the vanity beneath his argument and understood that being forgotten frightened him almost as much as prison.
At the temporary office, Rebecca noticed Chris’s tapping and began a clapping game. Her noise covered Alex as he shifted closer to the east window. The hidden intruder appeared briefly in its reflection, holding a tablet rather than a gun.
Chris asked Rebecca to fetch the steel practice medal from the desk. When she moved, Alex threw his chair through the east window. The intruder raised the tablet to activate the remote attack, exposing himself to the camera for Elena to identify.
She recognized the device as a commercial drone controller. A small aircraft waited above the office roof with an explosive charge. Chris pulled Rebecca beneath the reinforced counter while Alex tackled the operator through the broken window.
Mercer saw the struggle on his screens and tightened his grip. Carl waited for the heat current to shift across the ventilation shaft. Lewis called the correction in a steady voice, separating the man beside him from the prisoner Mercer once conditioned.
The shot crossed the command center and cut the watchband antenna. Mercer released the switch, but its signal never reached the drone. Elena used the three-second delay to seize the relay and send the aircraft into an empty drainage field.
Jane crossed the platform before Mercer recovered. He struck her aside and reached for Mara’s weapon. Rachel intercepted him, driving both of them against the ledger terminal while Ruiz’s agents entered behind her.
Mercer activated the corridor charges manually. The first explosion sealed the tunnel entrance and started a chain moving toward the vault. Dust and concrete fell across the platform. The Crown Ledger required four minutes to copy, while the final charge would arrive in less than two.
Elena began the transfer anyway. Mara knew an emergency coolant passage beneath the terminal, wide enough for one person at a time. Ruiz ordered evacuation, but Jane refused to leave without the archive that could prevent Meridian from rebuilding. Escaping with Mercer while abandoning the proof would preserve the man and sacrifice every victim’s chance to expose his system.
Lewis descended from the ridge through the ventilation shaft while Carl covered the platform. He joined Elena at the terminal and recognized a compression protocol from captivity. By removing duplicate surveillance files, they could reduce the transfer to ninety seconds.
Rachel pinned Mercer beneath a fallen support while Jane removed the dead-man switch. He told Carl that saving evidence instead of killing him proved why Meridian would always return. Carl answered that prisons existed for men who mistook restraint for weakness.
The transfer completed as the last structural alarm sounded. They entered the coolant passage with Mercer in restraints and the Crown Ledger secured inside Elena’s case. Behind them, Halcyon’s command platform collapsed beneath fire and stone. The archive survived only because people Mercer treated as replaceable had trusted one another with separate parts of the escape.
At the far end of the passage, Mara counted the survivors and stopped. Rachel Fisher was missing. Then Jane discovered the evidence case had been opened during the escape, and one encrypted section of the Crown Ledger—labeled SOVEREIGN—was gone.