Chapter 29 - Vanessa’s Redemption
Through the bunker’s internal radio receiver, a secondary channel crackled to life, overriding the sound of the tactical breach above.
"Julian! Can you hear me?!"
It was Vanessa again, but this time her voice was not coming from a phone. It was coming from the municipal emergency dispatch frequency.
"I made it to the storm drain," she panting, her voice raw and hoarse. "I'm at the precinct on Fourth Street. Julian... I found the safe in Mom’s bedroom before I ran. I took the files. I have the original incorporation documents from 1998. Mom kept them as blackmail against Sterling! She has the original signatures—yours, Dad’s, and Vance’s!"
Arthur Vance snapped his head toward the console, his jaw slack. "She kept the physical hard-stock charters?"
"She was never loyal to anyone, Arthur," Julian said into the open microphone, his hands never leaving the capacitive pads. "Not to my father, not to Sterling, and certainly not to me. She was collecting collateral for the day the music stopped."
"Julian," Vanessa wept over the radio. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I tore that paper because... because Mom told me that if you got that job, you would leave us behind and find out what she did. She promised me that if I kept you down, Sterling would give me a vice-presidency at Vanguard. She lied to me, Julian! She lied to both of us!"
Julian paused, his fingers resting lightly against the bronze mesh. For years, he had harbored a burning, consuming rage toward his sister for her petty cruelty, her smug superiority, and the casual humiliation on graduation day. But looking at the vast architecture of betrayal surrounding them, he realized she had been nothing more than a decoy, an expendable pawn in a game played by titans.
"Vanessa," Julian said calmly into the mic. "Give the documents to Captain Miller at the Fifth Precinct. Tell him to log them under evidence tag Chimera-One. Then stay there. Don't go back to the house."
"Julian... what are you going to do?"
May you like
Julian looked up as the thermite charge burned through the final seal of the hexagonal door. The metal screamed as it began to buckle inward under the force of a hydraulic ram.
"I’m going to balance the ledger," Julian said.
