Chapter 162 Cut Off the Medicine Supply

Chapter 162 Cut Off the Medicine Supply

Lucius glanced down at the two headless bodies on the floor. His white suit was drenched in blood.

The crimson stain ran from his collar all the way down to his knees, but he made no move to wipe it off.

"You just killed two Arbiters worth two hundred million dollars."

His speech slowed even further—probably to give his brain time to think.

"And then what?"

Wayne sat on the edge of the bed, his right index finger broken and unbandaged.

The fractured bone jutted out under the harsh light, but Lucius didn't look at it. His gaze remained fixed on Jenny's respirator mask.

Lucius pulled a palm-sized silver device from his breast pocket and tapped the screen. It lit up.

"Bright Horizon Pediatric Therapy is a facility registered on the global medical whitelist under code GH-7749."

"As of today, one hundred thirty-seven patients are receiving treatment under Eden Council patents."

He angled the device so Wayne could see it.

"Sixty-three of them are alive because of our respirators. Twenty-nine survive on our proprietary immune suppressants."

"Your daughter's gene-lock stabilizer contains four core components. We hold the patents on all of them."

Wayne didn't move.

"If I press this button, maintenance contracts for one hundred thirty-seven devices will terminate immediately."

"Remote firmware lockdown. Forced device shutdown."

Lucius held the device against his chest.

"Perfectly legal. Article Nine of the Biosafety Convention was signed by one hundred seventy-three countries."

"During special genetic sample recovery periods, all medical resources fall under Council jurisdiction."

Morrison burst through the door. "What the hell are you talking about? This is a hospital!"

"Exactly. A hospital." Lucius didn't look at Morrison. His eyes stayed on Wayne.

"So tell me—your fists can crush a man's skull, but can they break an international pharmaceutical treaty signed by one hundred seventy-three nations?"

The only sound in the room was the rhythmic hiss of the respirator.

Wayne lifted his head, but he didn't look at Lucius. He looked at Emily. Emily sat beside Jenny's bed, gripping the rail so hard her knuckles had gone white.

Lucius took that as hesitation.

"Looking at your wife?" He stepped forward, his shoes making soft squelching sounds as they pressed into the bodies of the guards.

"Let me tell you something else."

He swiped to a second screen.

"The military hospital currently has eight hundred forty-seven wounded veterans in care. Four hundred twelve of them have neural repair chips manufactured by Eden Council."

"Downstairs, more than half of Rivera's old unit is alive because of me."

Morrison pressed his fist against the doorframe but made no sound.

Lucius continued. "And Reed—he has twenty-three key officers under his command."

"Seven with our artificial livers. Five on our blood filtration modules."

He powered off the device and slipped it back into his pocket.

"One press of the Enter key shuts down the respirator. You've killed far fewer people in your entire life than that number. So what exactly are you going to use to fight me?"

The white-haired doctor dropped his medical kit against the wall. It tumbled to the floor and shattered, clasps scattering across the tile.

Lucius turned toward the hallway, raising his voice to make sure Rivera could hear.

"Rivera, you have three minutes to decide. Hand over everyone in this room, or let four hundred patients in the military hospital die tonight."

A burst of radio chatter echoed down the hall—one of Rivera's deputies reporting something in rapid-fire speech, too fast to make out.

Lucius turned back to Wayne. From his inner breast pocket, he pulled out a folded document and spread it on the edge of Jenny's bed.

"Guardianship Termination Agreement. Sign it. Give me your daughter."

"I guarantee uninterrupted medication for all one hundred thirty-seven patients in this building."

He added, "Additional terms: self-inflicted hand injury and on-site neural sample extraction."

Emily's body trembled, but she didn't make a sound. She released her grip on the rail and moved to stand beside Wayne.

Lucius's lips curled slightly. "Your wife is smarter than you. She already knew what you'd choose."

Wayne stood up.

Not slowly—he simply rose from the bed in one motion, as if he'd never been injured at all.

Lucius took half a step back on reflex.

But Wayne didn't look at Lucius. He turned to Morrison instead.

"Give me the radio."

Morrison handed it over. Wayne pressed the channel button and spoke to the command center below.

"Lock down all airspace. Seal off maritime routes."

"Lucius's two private jets—nail the wheels to the runway. Not one of them moves."

Lucius reached into his pocket for the device. "What are you doing?"

Wayne set the radio aside and turned to face Lucius. The distance between them was less than three feet.

"What you just said has a logical flaw."

Lucius's fingers found the edge of the device. "What flaw?"

Wayne extended his right hand—the broken finger, dried blood, exposed bone fragments.

He closed his hand around Lucius's throat and lifted him off the ground.

Lucius's feet dangled about six inches in the air. Instinctively, he clawed at Wayne's fingers.

But Wayne's grip was like iron welded to his neck.

"You have to be alive to press that button and cut off the medication."

Wayne's voice came from below, calm and measured. No trace of anger.

"Your proposal has to be signed by you personally. The remote shutdown has to be ordered by you while you're still breathing."

Lucius's face turned an ugly shade of red. His mouth opened, trying to form words.

But his windpipe was compressed too tightly. All that came out was a strangled gurgling sound.

"Laws take time to go into effect. Strangling you takes one second."

Lucius's hand scrabbled frantically in his pocket for the device. His fingers found the screen—he was trying to unlock it with his fingerprint to issue a voice command.

The device lit up briefly.

Then went dark.

The patch on Wayne's lower back dimmed. At the same moment, a crack appeared across the silver device in Lucius's hand.

It spread outward from the center. The entire screen went black, and thin wisps of smoke curled from the edges.

Nathan's voice crackled through Morrison's radio.

"The biological magnetic field generated by the Commander's core neural protocol has a disruption radius of two meters. It can fry any unshielded microelectronics within range."

Lucius's device was dead. But his finger stayed pressed against the screen, frozen in place—nothing had responded after that single press.

Wayne released him.

Lucius was barely five feet tall. When he dropped, his back slammed straight into the floor.

Shards of glass from the helicopter crash littered the ground.

The fragments embedded themselves in his back, shoulder blades, and the base of his skull. The back of his white suit bloomed with fresh blood.