Chapter 7 - Someone Inside the Empire Was Lying
Gideon Ross had known Adrian Vale since Adrian was six years old.
He had taught him chess.
Taught him to drive.
Attended Daniel's funeral.
Held Adrian's mother while she cried.
And apparently helped destroy everything Adrian's family had spent years trying to protect.
That betrayal hurt Adrian more than he allowed anyone to see.
Lena saw it anyway.
They stood inside the secure operations room beneath Vale Tower.
Screens covered the walls.
Gideon waited forty-two floors above.
Sebastian was somewhere with him.
“I'm coming,” Lena said.
“No.”
“We already discussed this.”
“No, you discussed it. I rejected it.”
Adrian turned.
“You think saving me gives you unlimited opportunities to endanger yourself?”
“Maybe.”
“It doesn't.”
“Then stop trying to protect me from my own story.”
That silenced him.
Lena stepped closer.
“My mother died because of these people.”
“I know.”
“I lost school.”
“I know.”
“My home.”
“I know.”
“My entire life.”
His voice softened.
“I know.”
“No, Adrian.”
She looked into his eyes.
“You know the facts. I lived them.”
He couldn't answer that.
“So I'm going upstairs.”
Adrian finally nodded.
“But you stay beside me.”
“Fine.”
“And if I tell you to move—”
“I'll consider it.”
“Lena.”
“Best offer.”
Gabriel almost smiled.
They entered the private elevator.
Forty-two floors.
Neither spoke.
At floor thirty-eight, Adrian said quietly:
“You asked why Daniel's death mattered.”
Lena looked at him.
“He was the good one.”
“What does that make you?”
“The one who survived.”
The elevator doors opened.
Gideon stood inside Adrian's office.
Sixty-three.
Silver-haired.
Elegant.
He looked like a beloved grandfather.
Sebastian sat nearby, wrists bound.
Alive.
“Adrian.”
Gideon smiled sadly.
“You look terrible.”
“You cut my brakes.”
“Yes.”
The casual admission shocked Lena.
Adrian didn't react.
“Why?”
“Because you started asking about foundation transfers.”
“You tried to kill me over accounting?”
“Don't insult either of us.”
Gideon looked at Lena.
“Elaine's daughter.”
Lena's skin crawled.
“You knew my mother.”
“Very well.”
“She hated you?”
Gideon smiled.
“Eventually.”
“What did you do to her?”
“Nothing.”
“That's a lie.”
“She had cancer.”
“You used her.”
“I gave her treatment.”
“You experimented on her.”
“I extended her life.”
Lena stepped forward.
Adrian's arm blocked her.
Gideon noticed.
Interesting.
“You care about her already.”
Adrian's expression didn't change.
“She saved my life.”
“People have saved your life before.”
“Not like her.”
Gideon's smile disappeared.
“Give me the evidence.”
“No.”
“Then Sebastian dies.”
Sebastian spoke.
“Don't.”
Gideon turned.
“Quiet.”
Adrian said, “Elaine said Sebastian was innocent.”
For the first time, Gideon looked surprised.
“You found the video.”
“Yes.”
“Then Vincent was more clever than I thought.”
“You killed him?”
“No.”
Adrian stared.
“Daniel?”
Gideon hesitated.
That was answer enough.
Adrian moved.
Fast.
Lena caught his arm.
“Adrian.”
He stopped.
Barely.
Gideon watched.
“Your brother discovered what Helixor was doing. He threatened to expose it.”
“So you poisoned him.”
“I protected thousands of employees and billions in assets.”
“You murdered my brother.”
“I prevented a collapse.”
Adrian's voice became frighteningly quiet.
“Those aren't the same thing.”
“No. They're not.”
Gideon looked toward Lena.
“But you understand sacrifice, don't you, Miss Mercer?”
“No.”
“You sacrificed school for your mother.”
“That was love.”
“Difference is perspective.”
“No.”
Lena stepped around Adrian.
“The difference is consent.”
Gideon stared.
“My mother never agreed to become your experiment. Daniel never agreed to die for your balance sheet. You don't sacrifice other people.”
Her voice steadied.
“You use them.”
For the first time, Gideon looked angry.
“Your mother was equally irritating.”
Lena smiled.
“Thank you.”
Sebastian laughed.
Gideon struck the table.
“Enough.”
His composure cracked.
Adrian noticed.
So did Gabriel through the hidden communication device.
Gideon wanted the evidence.
Meaning he didn't know they had copied it.
Adrian began buying time.
“Why continue VMX-17?”
“Because the mechanism had value.”
“It killed patients.”
“Some.”
“Seventeen.”
“Those people were already terminal.”
Lena's stomach turned.
Gideon continued.
“The data generated hundreds of millions in investment.”
“And when Vincent discovered it?”
“He wanted to confess.”
“My father?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't he?”
“Daniel died.”
Adrian went still.
Gideon smiled faintly.
“Vincent understood the warning.”
Lena looked at Adrian.
His father had lived with that.
His silence had not been cowardice.
It had been terror of losing another son.
Then Gideon said something worse.
“But eventually Vincent tried again.”
Adrian's eyes hardened.
“What happened?”
“He died.”
Adrian's breathing changed.
Officially Vincent Vale had suffered a heart attack.
“You killed him too.”
Gideon didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
Lena reached for Adrian's hand.
She didn't think.
She simply did it.
His fingers closed around hers.
Gideon saw.
Something calculating entered his expression.
“Interesting.”
Adrian released Lena immediately.
Too late.
Gideon knew.
A sound came from the hallway.
Gideon smiled.
“You should have come alone.”
The office doors opened.
Several Vale security officers entered.
Adrian frowned.
His own men.
Their supervisor stepped beside Gideon.
Lena understood.
Gideon hadn't merely infiltrated Adrian's empire.
He had built pieces of it.
Adrian looked at the supervisor.
“Roth.”
“Sorry, boss.”
Adrian's expression didn't change.
“Don't call me that.”
Gideon held out his hand.
“The evidence.”
Adrian said nothing.
Gideon nodded toward Lena.
“Or perhaps I take something more valuable.”
Adrian stepped in front of her.
And at that exact moment, every light in Vale Tower went dark.
Gabriel's voice sounded through Adrian's earpiece.
“Now.”
Emergency shutters dropped.
Chaos erupted.
Lena grabbed Sebastian.
Adrian pulled both toward a private service corridor.
They ran.
Behind them, Gideon shouted.
They reached the stairwell.
Forty-two floors above Manhattan.
Sebastian breathed heavily.
“There’s something you need to know.”
“Later,” Adrian said.
“No.”
Sebastian grabbed his arm.
“Gideon wasn't the only one.”
Adrian stopped.
“What?”
“There were two people controlling the program.”
“Who was the second?”
Sebastian looked at Lena.
“I never knew his name.”
“Then what do you know?”
Sebastian swallowed.
“Elaine did.”
Lena stared.
“How?”
“She met him the night before she died.”
Lena felt the floor disappear beneath her.
“My mother didn't die at the hospital.”
Sebastian looked confused.
“Yes, she did.”
“No.”
Lena's voice shook.
“She died at 4:12 in the morning.”
Sebastian nodded.
“The meeting happened at 4:30.”
Nobody moved.
Lena whispered:
May you like
“Then somebody met a woman using my dead mother's name eighteen minutes after she died.”
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