Chapter 40 - The Sovereign Key
That midnight, I returned to the underground vault beneath Blackwood Manor to permanently purge my father's old research files and decommission the server. Noah was fast asleep upstairs under Margaret’s watchful eye, protected by the most advanced perimeter security system in the world.
I sat down at Arthur Vance’s old desk. In the center lay the empty lockbox that had contained the three master ledgers.
I reached down to flip the master power switch on the server rack, ready to shut it down forever.
Suddenly, a high-pitched digital chirp echoed through the silent vault.
The main terminal screen flickered to life. A red dialogue box appeared on the center screen, displaying an active satellite connection originating from an unregistered maritime vessel in the North Atlantic.
*Incoming Encrypted Video Stream... Source: Protocol Zero.*
My pulse leaped. I hesitated, then pressed the spacebar to accept the feed.
The screen flickered, revealing the bridge of an ultra-modern private yacht cutting through a stormy black ocean. Standing against the rain-streaked window was a tall man dressed in an immaculate dark overcoat, his back turned to the camera.
"You fought well, Clara," a deep, aristocratic voice echoed through the vault speakers—a voice that was chillingly familiar, sending a violent jolt of electricity down my spine. "You destroyed Heinrich. You destroyed my daughter Victoria. You even cleaned up that fool Julian Vance."
The man slowly turned around.
When the light caught his face, the air was ripped completely from my lungs. My entire body went paralyzed.
It was my father.
Arthur Vance. Alive. His hair silvered, his jaw lined with age, but his piercing blue eyes undeniably the exact same eyes that looked back at me from my own mirror every day.
"Dad...?" The word came out as a strangled, disbelieving whisper.
May you like
"Noah was never the catalyst, Clara," Arthur said, taking a slow sip from a crystal glass, staring directly into the lens. "You were. The enzyme has been living within your blood for twenty-five years. And now that you've systematically dismantled my competitors and taken total control of Vance Pharmaceuticals for me... it's time for you to bring my grandson home."
Behind his silhouette on the ship’s radar screen, three private attack helicopters lifted off from the deck, their transponders flashing directly toward the GPS coordinates of Blackwood Manor.
