Chapter 13
Chapter 13: The Silent Partner's Trap
"What does this mean, Sarah? Look at this data. Explain it to me clearly," Daniel demanded, his voice a ragged, desperate whisper as he pointed at the screen.
Sarah leaned closer, her eyes wide with a mixture of awe and absolute terror. "It means they harvested genetic material from both of you years ago, Daniel. Don't you remember the mandatory physicals your father made you take for the corporate insurance pool when you turned twenty-one? They didn't just want Tomás's DNA, and they didn't just want yours. They wanted a specific, hyper-selected genetic sequence that only a combined Mendoza lineage could spark. Tomás thought he was the sole father. You think you are the sole father. But the child is a genetic mosaic, a designed corporate asset. They played you both from the very beginning."
Before Daniel could process the weight of her words, the diner’s thick glass windows suddenly shattered inward with a deafening crash.
Thwip. Thwip.
The distinctive, muted sound of suppressed gunshots cut through the air. Sarah didn't even have time to scream. Her forehead instantly erupted in a horrific spray of deep crimson. Her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed face-forward onto the table, her black coffee spilling out and mixing into the rapidly growing pool of her own blood.
"Get down!" Daniel screamed to the terrified waitress behind the counter, instantly rolling off his bench onto the greasy tile floor.
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The front doors were kicked open, and two men in full tactical gear, their faces completely obscured by black ballistic masks, breached the perimeter. They didn't move like street thugs, mob hitmen, or even standard police officers. They moved like ghosts—highly trained, precise, corporate military operatives. Daniel drew his Glock from his waistband, leaning around the edge of the counter and firing three rounds in rapid succession. One of his heavy rounds caught the lead operative squarely in the thigh, causing the man to drop to one knee with a muffled grunt of pain.
Daniel didn't stay to engage in a prolonged gunfight. He knew he was outgunned and outpositioned. He lunged forward, grabbed Sarah’s blood-stained flash drive from the table, kicked open the side fire exit, and sprinted headfirst into the freezing Boston rain. They weren't trying to capture him or negotiate terms. They were cleaning the slate, erasing every witness who knew the name Aethelgard. And he was next on the list.
