Chapter 23 - The Swiss Cipher
The video paused, Lauren’s frozen face staring back at us through the digital haze.
"Who is she talking about?" I demanded, terror fighting with fury in my chest. "Julian Vance ran Apex Therapeutics. He had politicians in his pocket! Who could possibly be above him?"
Marcus leaned in, zooming in on the background of the frame behind Lauren. In the glass reflection of the window, illuminated by a flash of lightning, was a crest etched onto a brass kerosene lamp: an ouroboros—a serpent swallowing its own tail—encircling a gilded letter *D*.
Marcus’s face turned an ashen shade of gray. "The Dubois Dynasty."
"Who are they?"
"An old-money European pharmaceutical conglomerate," Marcus said, his voice dropping to a gravelly murmur. "They founded Apex twenty years ago through blind trusts. Julian Vance was an aggressive executive hired to take the public fall if their illegal genetic harvesting programs were ever exposed. The real architect is Vivienne Dubois. She doesn't operate in public courtrooms, Clara. She operates in private shadow banks and private mercenary contracts."
Before we could digest the revelation, the monitor began typing text automatically beneath Lauren’s frozen video.
*Clara: Check the silver music box father gave us for our sixteenth birthday. The lining hides a safety deposit key for Bank Hofmann in Geneva. The account holds the synthesis protocol Vance tried to steal. It also holds the adoption decree. You need to know what our father actually did before they silence both of us.*
The screen went black. The hard drive let out a soft whine as the incoming payload wiped its own footprints, leaving the terminal blank.
"The music box is in our childhood home in the Berkshires," I said, grabbing my coat. "The estate has been shuttered since Father died five years ago."
"It’s heavily guarded by local authorities under court protective orders," Marcus noted, checking the magazine of his sidearm before sliding it into his holster. "Which means whoever is hunting your sister will already know to watch it."
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"Then we don't go as visitors," I replied, meeting his gaze with a cold resolve I hadn't known I possessed. "We go as ghosts."
***