Chapter 12 - The Royal Facade
The billionaire Sheikh’s terrifying confession echoed heavily in the sterile, underground laboratory.
I stared at his terrified face on the glowing screen, completely refusing to let him see even a single ounce of my own fear.
"You heavily funded my war against Vanguard to steal my father’s medical patents, Omar. Do not play the victim now," I stated viciously.
Omar swallowed hard, his dark eyes frantically scanning his opulent, gold-leafed surroundings as if Julian were hiding in his curtains.
"I did not orchestrate this hostile takeover for money, Mara. I did it to completely bury the horrifying truth of Project Genesis," he confessed rapidly.
My blood ran entirely cold at the mention of the highly classified, mythical project my father had supposedly destroyed twenty years ago.
"Project Genesis was a complete failure. My father burned the research files before he died," I argued fiercely.
"Your father lied to you to protect your life," Omar whispered, leaning terrifyingly close to his camera.
"He successfully engineered the neurotoxin, and he hid the sole remaining synthetic formula somewhere inside the foundation of your hospital."
The brutal, devastating reality completely crashed down upon my shoulders with the heavy force of a collapsing building.
Chelsea had not laced the surgical valves with a random, untraceable poison she bought on the black market.
She had actively used a diluted, highly unstable variant of my father’s own lethal creation to orchestrate her massacre.
"Julian Vance does not want money, Mara. He wants Project Genesis to completely annihilate the global leaders who ruined his mother," Omar explained frantically.
"If he acquires that formula, he will unleash a biological nightmare that will permanently end millions of innocent lives."
I violently ended the video call, entirely unwilling to listen to the pathetic billionaire beg for my protection.
I grabbed my security chief, a towering, battle-hardened former Marine named Jax, and sprinted toward the sub-basement elevators.
"Lock down the entire facility immediately. No one enters or leaves without my explicit, verbal authorization," I ordered Jax coldly.
As the heavy steel elevator doors slid shut, the emergency alarms of the hospital suddenly began to wail with a deafening, high-pitched shriek.
The primary power grid flickered violently before plunging the entire subterranean level into absolute, suffocating darkness.
Red emergency strobe lights began flashing aggressively, bathing the concrete corridor in a terrifying, chaotic crimson glow.
Julian Vance was not simply threatening me from afar; he was actively breaching my impenetrable fortress.
"He is overriding the central mainframe from the inside," Jax yelled over the deafening sirens, drawing his heavy tactical sidearm.
We moved rapidly down the dark hallway, our backs pressed firmly against the freezing concrete walls.
Suddenly, a massive, deafening explosion completely shattered the heavy reinforced doors of the hospital's primary server room.
Thick, acrid gray smoke poured violently into the corridor, heavily laced with the smell of burning plastic and raw electrical fire.
A tall, broad-shouldered silhouette stepped smoothly out of the burning server room, walking with terrifying, predatory grace.
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Julian Vance stood completely unarmed, wearing a sleek black tactical suit and staring directly at me with eyes that mirrored pure, unadulterated madness.
"You really should have burned this hospital to the ground when you had the chance, Mara," Julian smiled, his voice a dark, echoing purr.
