Ms. CEO’s Baby Daddy Is the Merchant of Death – Episode 73
Connor examined the restraint instead of tearing at it. Vale expected force to close the hospital circuit. Scarlett pointed him toward a second control beneath the driver’s seat.
The mechanism required two operators in separate compartments. Connor entered the cargo sequence while Scarlett rotated the cab release. Their movements had to remain synchronized within one second.
Cypher counted through the analog radio. At zero, Connor turned the freight wheel and Scarlett pulled the release. The restraints opened without completing the distant trigger.
The hospital timer stopped again at three seconds. Scarlett escaped the cab carrying a partial imprint of Vale’s neck key. The card had recorded its mechanical pattern before he removed it.
Cypher converted the imprint into the final route code. Eleven teams entered their sequences simultaneously. Every core shifted from detonation mode to manual disassembly.
Vale reached a backup vehicle and activated his handheld controller. Richard recognized a Reed founder channel beneath the signal. His family still possessed one dormant authorization left outside Dominion’s reforms.
Richard ordered the authorization destroyed. Lawyers warned that it also secured billions in Reed defense assets. He confirmed the command without hesitation.
The Reed founder channel vanished. Vale’s controller lost half its reach. Evelyn activated Dawn’s final layer against the remaining authentication pattern.
One by one, the warehouse teams reported safe cores. The hospital retained power while technicians removed its device. Eleven red indicators on Vale’s controller turned dark.
The twelfth indicator belonged to the truck itself. Vale could still overload its command core and destroy the freight yard. Connor and Scarlett moved toward him together.
Vale demanded a final fight with the student he created. Connor told him that student no longer existed. He would not reduce Scarlett, the task force, or the saved cities to spectators in another man’s legend.
Officers surrounded the yard under their commander’s orders. Vale fired and ran toward the highway. Connor pursued only far enough to protect the team, never abandoning Scarlett or the core.
At the edge of Highway 47, Vale’s vehicle struck a barrier. He emerged wearing an explosive vest connected to the truck. Killing him would close the circuit and detonate the final core.
Vale invited Connor to prove he had changed by allowing him to escape. Connor rejected the false choice. Cypher had identified a delay between the vest and the truck.
Scarlett disconnected the command core while Connor restrained Vale without striking the trigger. Officers cut the vest’s receiver during the delay. Vale’s final weapon became inert.
Vale attempted to throw himself over the highway barrier rather than face trial. Connor caught his arm and pulled him back. Saving him was not forgiveness; it guaranteed public judgment.
The task force placed Vale in restraints. For the first time, no hidden network, private army, or founder privilege answered him. He left the highway as an ordinary prisoner.
Cypher confirmed all twelve Zero Hour cores had been disabled. Dawn erased their autonomous architecture, and international inspectors began dismantling the hardware. No dormant weapon remained unaccounted for.
Rain softened over the freight yard. Connor stood where he had once awakened and left Scarlett alone. He admitted he had spent four years trying to outrun the life that began there.
He took her hand and looked toward the road home. “The first time we stopped here, I left,” he said. “This time, I’m going home with you.”