Ch.39: The Fallout

The courtroom didn't just erupt. It disintegrated.

"Murderer!" someone screamed from the back row.

"Lock her up!"

Reporters were shouting over each other, their drones buzzing like angry hornets. The jury was on their feet. Sterling was trying to shout orders to his team, but his voice was drowned out by the roar of the crowd.

Judge Halloway banged his gavel, but it was like trying to stop a tidal wave with a spoon.

"Order!" he bellowed, his face purple. "Clear the court! I said clear the court!"

I didn't move. I stood in the center of the chaos, watching the screen. Mia's face was frozen in a rictus of terror. Then the feed cut to black.

"Harper!" Julian grabbed my arm, pulling me back toward the defense table. "We need to go."

"I'm not done," I said, my voice vibrating with adrenaline.

"You're done for today," Julian said. "Look at the ticker."

I looked up.

**VANE INNOCENT: 98%**

The number was glowing green, pulsing like a heartbeat. The public had spoken. Mia was the villain. Julian was the victim.

And I was the avenging angel.

But then I saw the other number. The stock ticker for Vane Global.

It was skyrocketing.

**VANE GLOBAL (VGL): +400%**

Investors weren't just betting on his innocence. They were betting on his revenge. They knew that if Julian walked free, he would tear Sterling & Wolfe apart. And they wanted a piece of the action.

"You're rich again," I said, pointing at the screen.

"I don't care about the money," Julian said, scanning the room for threats. "I care about the exit. Sterling isn't going to let us walk out of here."

He was right. Sterling was on his phone, barking orders. He looked at me, his eyes promising a slow, painful death.

"Bailiff!" Halloway shouted. "Seize the Defense Counsel! Seize the evidence!"

Two bailiffs moved toward me. But they hesitated. They looked at the P-Stock ticker. They looked at the angry mob in the gallery.

"Don't touch her!" a woman shouted. "She's a hero!"

"She saved him!" another man yelled.

The bailiffs stopped. They were outnumbered.

"Let's go," Julian said, seizing the moment.

We pushed through the gate. The crowd parted for us, cheering, reaching out to touch my arm, my shoulder. It was intoxicating. It was terrifying.

We reached the back doors. Silas was waiting there, his face grim.

"The perimeter is compromised," he said. "Sterling has a hit team in the lobby. We can't go out the front."

"The roof?" Julian asked.

"covered. Snipers."

We were trapped. The courtroom was a sanctuary, but the building was a cage.

"The tunnels," I said. "The prisoner transport tunnels."

"They'll be waiting," Silas said.

"Not if we create a diversion," Julian said.

He looked at me. "Do you still have the phone? The one connected to the broadcast?"

"Yes."

"Give it to me."

I handed him the burner. Julian tapped a few commands.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm liquidating the company," he said calmly. "I'm dumping Vane Global stock. All of it. Into the public domain."

"What?" I gasped. "You'll be broke."

"I'll be free," he said. "And Sterling will be too busy trying to buy the shares to chase us."

He hit execute.

On the screen above the judge, the stock ticker went wild.

**VGL: -10%... -30%... -50%**

"What is happening?" Halloway screamed, looking at his own investment portfolio on his tablet.

"Free shares!" someone shouted. "He's giving it away!"

The courtroom dissolved into a frenzy of greed. People were pulling out their phones, buying, selling, shouting. The bailiffs abandoned their posts to check their portfolios. Even Sterling froze, staring at his phone in horror.

"Now," Julian said.

We ran.

We sprinted down the back corridor, past the holding cells, toward the service elevator. Silas jammed the call button.

"This won't hold them for long," Silas said, checking his ammo.

"It doesn't have to," Julian said. "We just need to get to the basement."

The elevator arrived. We piled in.

As the doors closed, I looked at Julian. He had just given away a trillion-dollar empire to save our lives.

"You're crazy," I whispered.

"I'm invested," he said, taking my hand.

We reached the basement. The service tunnels.

"This way," Silas said, leading us into the dark.

We ran for what felt like miles. Damp, echoing footsteps. The sound of sirens fading behind us.

We emerged in a subway station in Sector 5. The same one we had used before.

"We need to disappear," Silas said. "Sterling will burn the city down to find us."

"We go to the penthouse," I said.

"What?" Julian asked. "That's the first place they'll look."

"Not your penthouse," I said. "Sterling's."

"You want to break into the lion's den?"

"He's not there," I said. "He's at the courthouse, trying to save his money. And Mia... she ran. The penthouse is empty."

"And what's there?" Silas asked.

"The servers," I said. "The mainframes for Chimera Solutions. The physical backups. If we get those, we don't just clear Julian. We put Sterling in prison for the rest of his life."

Julian looked at me. He smiled. It was the same dangerous smile he had given me in the cell.

"You really are a shark, Harper."

"I learned from the best," I said.

We walked out into the rain. The city was chaos. Sirens wailed. Screens flashed. The world was burning.

We won the battle. But the war just got bloody.