Chapter 17 - Bloodlines and Boardrooms
The private surgical wing of Mount Sinai Hospital was under twenty-four-hour lockdown by federal marshals and Moretti’s private security division.
Through the double-paned observation window, I watched the surgical team close the entry wound in Vincent’s shoulder. The bullet had missed his subclavian artery by less than two centimeters. The surgeon had emerged an hour ago to tell me he would recover full mobility, but the loss of blood had been severe.
I sat in the corridor, still wearing my bloodstained blazer. Maya was asleep on a vinyl bench, her head resting on my lap, while Leo sat cross-legged on the floor, typing furiously into Vincent’s encrypted tablet.
"What are you doing, sweetheart?" I asked softly, smoothing Maya’s hair.
Leo didn't look up from the glowing screen. "The Aegis Group isn't an investment fund, Mama. It’s an offshore holding trust registered under Maritime Law in the Cayman Islands, but the server routing protocols are bouncing through a private satellite node owned by a company called Sterling Zenith."
I froze. "Sterling Zenith was Julian’s personal venture fund before we even started the lab."
"Yes," Leo said, his seven-year-old fingers moving with frightening speed across the virtual keyboard. "Julian didn't just hide in the Pine Barrens or flee across the bridge. He used the bridge ambush as a distraction. Look at the network activity on the Moretti Tech server farm."
He spun the tablet toward me. A massive data transfer was currently draining the proprietary core algorithms from the subterranean mainframe—the very system Vincent and I had risked our lives to stabilize the night before.
"He’s siphoning the entire energy patent database," I breathed, my heart seizing. "If he completes that transfer, Aegis can deploy the technology in overseas jurisdictions where our legal injunctions have no power. He’ll walk away with billions, and we won't be able to touch him."
"Not yet," Leo said calmly, adjusting his glasses. "I locked the transfer in an infinite recursive loop using your secondary encryption protocol from the Frankfurt servers. But the loop will only hold for three hours before the Aegis mainframe forces a brute-force bypass."
I looked at my son, awe and terror battling in my chest. He had inherited every ounce of my engineering mind—and he had weaponized it to protect our family.
The heavy elevator doors at the end of the hall dinged open.
Three men stepped out, flanked by high-priced corporate attorneys in sharp charcoal suits. Leading them was Reginald Moretti—Vincent’s estranged uncle, a vulture who had spent a decade waiting for Vincent to stumble so he could sell the company’s infrastructure to international cartels.
"Dr. Vance," Reginald said, sneering as he looked at my bloodied clothes and the sleeping child on my lap. "I understand my nephew was foolish enough to play the hero on a public thoroughfare. Regrettable. But corporate governance does not pause for hospital stays."
I gently lifted Maya’s head, placing a folded coat beneath her, and stood up. I stepped between Reginald and the surgical room door, cold fury radiating from every pore.
"You have ten seconds to get off this floor, Reginald, before the federal marshals arrest you for violating a federal protective order."
Reginald laughed, pulling a crisp legal document from his leather portfolio. "This is an emergency order of corporate conservatorship, signed by the state appellate court thirty minutes ago. With Vincent incapacitated and Julian Sterling an indicted fugitive, the board has designated me as acting chief executive. And my first official act is to dissolve Dr. Vance’s consulting privileges and sanction the immediate sale of the Aegis-Moretti joint patents."
"You sold out to Aegis," I said, my voice dangerously calm. "Julian promised you a seat on their offshore board, didn't he?"
"I am securing the company’s value!" Reginald snapped. "You are an unlicensed ghost without legal standing, standing here with two bastards fathered by a criminal!"
The slap echoed down the corridor like a gunshot.
Reginald’s head snapped to the side, his glasses flying off and shattering against the linoleum floor. He stumbled back into his lawyers, clutching his reddened cheek in utter shock.
"Do not ever speak of my children again," I said, stepping into his personal space, my eyes burning with such lethal intent that the two lawyers instinctively took a step back. "And as for your emergency conservatorship—check your phone, Reginald."
Reginald blinked through his watery, uncorrected vision, pulling out his vibrating smartphone.
His eyes widened in sheer horror.
"The Attorney General just unsealed an indictment against Cerberus Holdings," I informed him, each word landing like a hammer blow. "Your personal signature was found on three shell wire transfers originating from Julian’s Zurich accounts. The SEC has halted all trading on Moretti Tech stock, and the marshals at the end of this hallway aren't here to keep me out. They’re here to take you into custody."
As if on cue, the two armed marshals stepped forward, their handcuffs unclipped from their duty belts.
"Reginald Moretti," the lead marshal barked. "You are under arrest for conspiracy to commit securities fraud, money laundering, and accessory to corporate sabotage. Turn around and put your hands behind your back."
Reginald went pale, his portfolio dropping to the floor, papers scattering everywhere as the marshals shoved him against the wall and snapped the steel cuffs onto his wrists.
"Elena!" Reginald screamed as they dragged him toward the elevators. "You can't stop Julian! He’s already at the primary relay! He has the core key!"
The elevator doors closed, cutting off his frantic cries.
I turned back to the tablet in Leo’s hands. The countdown timer on the recursive loop was ticking down: *01:42:18... 01:42:17...*
"Mama," Leo said softly, looking up. "The IP address running the brute-force attack... it’s not coming from overseas."
"Where is it, Leo?"
May you like
"It’s coming from the abandoned industrial testing grounds in the harbor," Leo replied, his voice trembling slightly. "The original lab. The one that burned."
***
