Chapter 56
CHAPTER 56 — THE TROPICAL BLACKOUT
Before Julian could crush Thomas's throat, the amber emergency lights of the iron cathedral died simultaneously. The entire flooded vault was plunged into a suffocating, absolute darkness.
Then, a low, rhythmic hum began to vibrate through the water beneath their feet.
High-powered, blue ultraviolet searchlights cut through the dark from the flooded entrance of the vault. A fleet of silent, electric-powered stealth submersibles glided into the chamber, their hulls bearing the unmistakable emblem of Aegis Life Sciences—Victoria Whitmore's global pharmaceutical shadow entity.
"The board is clear," a voice announced over a megaphone from the lead submersible.
It was Victoria Whitmore. She was sitting inside the pressurized glass cockpit of the sub, an oxygen line running to her nose, but her eyes were sharp, filled with the terrifying clarity of a woman who had finally won.
Beside her sat a young man dressed in a pristine white suit. He held a small, black velvet box on his lap.
"Mother..." Claire whispered, her strength failing as blood pooled around her leg. "Alex, look at the man next to her."
Alexander squinted through the blue UV light, his heart flatlining for a terrifying three seconds before his pacemaker forced a violent contraction.
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The young man in the white suit was a perfect, flawless mirror of Alexander himself—but he was barely twenty years old. Another iteration. Another ghost pulled from Harrison’s genetic ledger.
"You thought you broke the wheel in Switzerland, Claire," Victoria’s voice broadcasted through the sub's external speakers. "But you merely cleared the boardroom of dead weight. Meet Alexander Instance Three. He carries the black key. And unlike your brother, he doesn't have an emotional defect regarding children."
