The van was colder than usual.
Zephyr sat in the back, his were hands cuffed and feet chained to the floor. There were no windows in the van. Just the soft buzz of overhead lights and the low rumble of tires on wet pavement.
Across from him, one guard scrolled through his phone. The other watched the road through the front cabin window with his arms crossed.
No one spoke. There was nothing left to say.
Rain tapped against the roof.
Zephyr leaned his head back and closed his eyes.
It was done.
Not just the company and his shares.
Everything.
His name. Erased.
His legacy. Gone.
Even Suyin couldn't look at him in the end.
He opened his eyes again, slowly.
The road had changed.
They were no longer heading toward the city holding center. The skyline had vanished behind them. Trees lined the road now, dark and wet and flickering past under streetlights.
Zephyr's eyes narrowed.
"Wrong turn," he said.
No one answered.
The guard sitting across him stopped scrolling .
The van also slowed down.
The driver said something into the radio. Zephyr didn't catch the words, but he saw the tension in the guard's shoulders.
Then the van jerked sideways.
Zephyr slammed into the wall as the van hit something, something heavy and tipped.
Then the world flipped.
Glass shattered, steel screamed and the roof caved in. The world turned sideways then upside down and then dark.
Silence.
There was high-pitched ringing in his ears.
The taste of blood.
He opened his eyes to chaos.
The van was on its side, crumpled around him. One guard was dead his throat was torn open by a shard of the windshield. The other groaned under twisted metal that was pinned at his waist.
Zephyr tried to move. Pain bloomed instantly in his ribs. One of his leg was now useless. His wrists were still cuffed and were bleeding.
Through the shattered frame, he saw headlights.
A second vehicle was parked. Someone was watching him.
Then he saw a silhouette.
Someone stepped out from the car with a umbrella in hand, he was wearing black boots that were splashing in the rain.
He didn't approach. He didn't need to.
Zephyr understood.
This wasn't an accident.
They didn't want him in court. They didn't want appeals. They wanted him dead.
Gone forever.
He tasted blood again.
It filled his throat.
He looked up at the rain through the broken roof.
It was cold and quiet.
Not a bad place to die, he thought.
And then, everything stopped.