Chapter 41
The subterranean isolation wing of the Regensdorf Supermax facility outside Zurich was an underground concrete tomb. Through the diplomatic channels Vance had leveraged via the defense attaché, Carter and Shelby stood inside the fortified interview chamber, waiting for the heavy airlock to cycle.
When Dylan was escorted into the room, Carter felt a sharp pang of shock pierce his composure. Dylan’s arrogant swagger was entirely extinguished. His head was shaved bald, his hollow cheeks covered in gray stubble, his wrists bruised from constant mechanical restraint.
The moment Dylan saw Carter through the glass, he threw himself against the partition, his hands clawing at the acoustic perforations.
"Carter! Oh God, Carter, you have to get me out of here!" Dylan screamed, his voice hoarse and cracked. "He was here! He stood outside my cell last night!"
Carter picked up the heavy phone, keeping his voice low and level. "Calm down, Dylan. Who was here?"
"Charles!" Dylan wept, pressing his forehead against the cold glass. "He had a diplomatic clearance badge from the Austrian embassy! He wore an eight-thousand-dollar cashmere coat and the platinum signet ring! The guards didn't even check his clearance—they saluted him!"
Shelby took the adjoining receiver. "What did he say to you, Dylan?"
"He said I was his primary asset!" Dylan choked out, his eyes darting frantically around the ceiling cameras. "He told me that my biological father—the head of the Milan syndicate—left an encrypted multi-billion-dollar vault in Liechtenstein containing kompromat on half the European Parliament and the supply contracts for global black-market arms! But the vault requires two keys: Charles's master cipher, and a live genetic blood sample from me!"
Carter’s eyes narrowed. "If he needed you, why didn't he extract you last night?"
"Because he wants the Cerberus Protocol!" Dylan yelled, pulling up his torn gray jumpsuit to expose a fresh, crude incision along his left lower rib cage. "Before the Milan boss died, he had a subdermal titanium micro-chip embedded in my floating rib! It holds the cryptographic kill-switch to Charles's entire offshore network! Charles said if I didn't surrender the passcodes, he would have me gutted on the concrete floor!"
"Why didn't you give it to him?" Carter asked, his tone skeptical.
"Because the second he has that chip and my blood, he will put a bullet in the back of my neck!" Dylan sobbed, tears spilling onto the ledge. "Carter, I know I was a monster! I know I pulled a gun on you at the tower! But please... don't leave me here to be butchered by that old man!"
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Before Carter could reply, every light in the subterranean complex died simultaneously.
A deafening, low-frequency boom shook the foundation of the prison, followed by the high-pitched wail of emergency sirens. High-explosive charges had just detonated above the primary intake gates.
