Chapter 36 - The Confessions of the Damned
By dawn, the penthouse looked like a high-security operational command center.
Dozens of federal agents in tactical gear cataloged weapons, collected ballistic evidence, and escorted the captured mercenaries down the freight elevator in heavy iron chains. Forensic investigators in blue paper booties dusted the terrace glass, while an elite team of federal cyber-crimes specialists stood around Veta’s desk, staring at her laptop in open disbelief.
"You intercepted their encrypted military-grade radio burst using a consumer-grade laptop and a modified baby monitor frequency?" a lead FBI cyber-agent asked, his mouth agape.
"The baby monitor uses a 2.4 gigahertz spread-spectrum transceiver," Veta explained calmly, sipping a cup of chamomile tea Sloan had handed her. "Their transceivers had a rolling frequency hop, but they didn't account for the localized harmonic interference from my ventilator’s power inverter. I just caught the side-band chatter."
The agent stared at her, shook his head, and mumbled, "Kid, when this is over, you have a standing job offer at Quantico."
"She’s seventeen, and she’s going to MIT," Sloan interrupted firmly, stepping in with an uncompromising mother’s glare. "No federal trenches for my daughter."
Meanwhile, Kieran was on the phone near the terrace, his voice radiating cold satisfaction.
"Yes, Your Honor... We have the digital chain of custody... No, there will be no bail. The crypto wallet used to fund this hit squad leads directly back to the offshore account controlled by Richard Sterling and Sloan’s former brother-in-law, Gregory."
Sloan walked over to Kieran as he hung up. "Gregory was involved in this?"
"He was the middleman," Kieran said, turning to her with grim triumph. "When your ex-in-laws saw their public reputation disintegrate after the livestream trial, Gregory panicked. He knew the restitution order would strip him of his house, his car, and his country club membership. Richard Sterling convinced him that if Veta and you were eliminated, the civil lawsuits would evaporate and Gregory could claim legal conservatorship over David’s dormant estate as the surviving uncle."
"They wanted to murder a sick child for real estate," Sloan said, her voice shaking with disgust.
"They won't be seeing real estate for thirty to fifty years," Kieran said smoothly. "The federal prosecutor just signed superseding indictments for conspiracy to commit murder for hire, domestic terrorism, and biological weapons trafficking. Gregory, his wife, and Richard Sterling were arrested thirty minutes ago at a private airstrip in New Jersey trying to board a Gulfstream to Dubai."
Marcus approached them, his coat slung over his arm. "The domestic threat is dismantled. Arthur Sterling is dying in a federal prison infirmary, and his family is ruined. But the real work begins now."
He pointed to the titanium canister sitting unharmed inside the courier case.
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"David is waiting at the alpine research institute in Lucerne," Marcus said softly. "The equipment needed to synthesize the final enzyme requires a zero-gravity centrifuge and a sterile atmosphere that exists in only three facilities on Earth. If we want Veta to walk away from that ventilator forever, we have to move now."
***
