Chapter 77
CHAPTER 77 — THE AMBASSADOR'S ENCLAVE
Two weeks later, the geopolitical landscape had completely fractured. The "Whitmore Leaks" had triggered a massive congressional investigation, but the media narrative had been completely hijacked by a new, mysterious global consortium calling itself The New Renaissance Group.
Claire, Anna, and Lily were living inside a heavily guarded compound in Great Falls, Maryland—not as fugitives, but as "protected guests" of the French diplomatic mission, secured by international asylum laws.
Inside the compound's private study, Claire sat across from Victoria Lane, who was nursing a broken collarbone, her face illuminated by a row of secure, encrypted monitors.
"Your father’s attorney didn't set up that house, Claire," Victoria Lane said, her voice sharp with a bitter clarity. "He was blackmailed by a secondary branch of the Vanguard Enclave based in London. The people who funded Charles’s return... they aren't corporate elites. They are sovereign wealth funds who want to use the Monarch Grid to automate the currency markets of the entire European Union."
"And my grandmother Victoria?" Claire asked.
"She’s currently in a federal holding facility in Alexandria, but her lawyers are filing for diplomatic immunity under a medical research proxy," Victoria Lane explained, tapping the screen to show a live feed of a secure government courtroom.
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"She’s offering the feds a deal. She will give them the location of the secondary servers in exchange for custody of Lily. The Department of Homeland Security is already drafting the national security letters to override our diplomatic asylum here. We have less than forty-eight hours before the tactical teams breach this compound with a federal warrant."
Claire looked out the window at the manicured lawns where Lily was playing under the watchful eye of two French security officers. The little girl was holding the chromatic pearl shoe, using it to catch the light, entirely innocent of the fact that her blood was the prize for a global trade war.
