Chapter 3 - THE CIPHER IN THE MUSIC BOX
Caleb didn’t flinch. In one swift, fluid motion, he slid beneath the shadow of the grand piano, kicking a heavy mahogany chair directly into the path of the lead guard.
"Intruder in the ballroom!" Victor Thorne barked into his lapel communicator, drawing a silenced sidearm. "Subdue him immediately! Do not let him reach the terminal!"
"Get behind the pillar, girls!" Caleb yelled, hurling the leather satchel across the floor. It skidded precisely between the wheels of Ivy’s chair. "Open it! Use Julian’s birthday cipher—the date of your first piano recital!"
Guns cracked, the suppressed pops spitting sparks against the marble pillars. Ivy reacted on pure instinct. She snatched the satchel, her fingers flying over the brass combination lock. May 14th. 0-5-1-4.
The lock clicked open. Inside was not a flash drive or documents, but a vintage wooden music box carved with mechanical gears and glass vials.
Celeste Voss stepped out of the private executive elevator on the mezzanine above, her sharp stilettos clicking against the iron railing. "Hold your fire!" she screamed, her usually composed voice shattering into raw fury. "Thorne, stand down! What is happening down there?!"
Celeste’s eyes locked onto Caleb Vance standing in the center of her shattered ballroom. The blood drained instantly from her face.
"Caleb?" Celeste breathed, clinging to the cold brass handrail. "You’re dead. The crash report said your body was found in the river."
"You were lied to, Celeste!" Caleb shouted, backing toward the girls' wheelchairs as Thorne’s men re-positioned their angles. "Just like you were lied to about the brake failure on Julian’s car! Just like you were lied to about what caused Ivy and Esme’s neurological deterioration!"
Celeste froze on the staircase, the billion-dollar contract in her hands fluttering loose and scattering down the steps like fallen leaves. "What did you say?"
"Ask Thorne!" Caleb’s eyes burned with fierce intensity. "Ask him why Project Genesis—the gene-therapy serum Julian perfected to repair motor neurons—disappeared from the lab vault three hours before Julian was murdered! Ask him who bought the offshore shell company that’s acquiring Voss Genitech tonight!"
May you like
Victor Thorne didn’t wait for Celeste to ask. His expression hardened from calculated professional to ruthless predator. He raised his weapon not at Caleb, but directly toward the two young girls.
"You should have stayed buried, Vance," Thorne said calmly. "Now, nobody leaves this room alive."
