Chapter 24 - The Blood Ledger
I sprinted back up the concrete stairs, ignoring the elevator. Suppressed gunshots cracked from the upper mezzanine, echoing down the spiral staircase like distant thunder. The clerk fled down a side corridor, vanishing through an emergency service door.
I drew the SIG Sauer, flicking the safety off. Reaching the ground-floor foyer, I found the polished marble floor slick with crimson. Two bank security guards lay motionless beside the revolving doors, executed with surgical precision.
Three operators clad in urban gray tactical gear, sporting balaclavas and submachine guns, were sweeping the lobby. On the right sleeve of their jackets was a patch depicting an eclipse—a black sun crowned in silver thorns.
"Target acquired!" one shouted in accented English, swinging his barrel toward the staircase.
I didn't wait for his trigger to reset. I fired through the decorative brass banister, dropping the lead shooter with two rounds to the chest and one to the t-box. He crumpled instantly.
The other two opened up, sending heavy 9mm slugs chewing through the marble pillars. Stone fragments sprayed across my face, cutting my cheek. I scrambled low behind an ornate mahogany reception desk, pulled a flashbang from my belt, yanked the pin with my teeth, and hurled it across the floor.
*BANG.*
The deafening concussion shook the building. Through the blinding white afterglow, I vaulted over the counter, engaging the disoriented shooters. Two clean, double-tap strikes ended the threat before they could clear their vision.
I kicked the glass out of the revolving door and burst out onto the icy street.
Two blocks away, the gray Audi was already roaring toward me, tires smoking on the freezing pavement. Marcus pulled a violent J-turn, throwing the passenger door open.
"Get in!" he bellowed.
I threw myself into the front seat as automatic fire erupted from a black Mercedes SUV pursuing down the boulevard. Bullets shattered our rear window.
"Lily!" I yelled, throwing my body backward to shield her.
She was tucked tightly on the floorboards, holding Barnaby over her ears, tears streaming down her pale cheeks, but she didn't scream. "I’m okay, Daddy! I stayed down like Uncle Marcus said!"
"Hold on to your teeth!" Marcus roared, ramming the Audi through a pedestrian barricade and sliding sideways down a narrow cobblestone alleyway designed for horse carriages. The stone walls scraped our side mirrors off in a shower of sparks, but the larger Mercedes couldn't squeeze through, wedging itself hard against the masonry with a screech of crumpling metal.
Marcus hit the main thoroughfare, blending into the Zurich rush-hour traffic before turning south toward the mountain pass.
"Did you get it?" Marcus asked, his knuckles white against the wheel, eyes darting between the mirrors.
I pulled the drive and the leather journal from my coat. "My father left a ledger. And Claire's DNA was the only key."
I opened the front cover of Arthur Mercer's journal. The handwriting was frantic, dated three weeks before my father’s supposed death:
*Claire uncovered the shipping manifests. Aegis Red isn't an investment firm—it is a procurement network for Project Lazarus. They are testing high-level bio-enhancements and neurological conditioning on abducted personnel. The Mercer fleet carried the containers. When Claire found the holding facility off the coast, Julian was ordered to liquidate her. But Vanessa made a mistake. Claire hid the research coordinates inside her daughter’s bloodline. Daniel, if you want your wife’s murderers, look to the snow. Lake Lucerne. Chalet 44. I am waiting.*
I stared at the page, my breath hitching in my throat.
"Marcus," I whispered, the words freezing in the air. "Claire didn't die because of money."
Marcus’s face went pale gray. "What did she find, Daniel?"
May you like
"She found out my father wasn't running the company," I said, my heart slamming against my ribs like a caged beast. "He was their prisoner."
***
