Chapter 4 - Victor Lied About His Son Nora had grown up hearing that
Adrian Kane died in a climbing accident in Switzerland.
Victor rarely spoke about him.
There were no photographs in the penthouse.
No memorial.
Only a locked room at Victor’s country house that Nora had once been
told never to enter.
Now Victor sat beneath the windows and stared at the city.
“Adrian didn’t die in Switzerland.”
Nora felt anger rise.
“Then where?”
Victor looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
“You told me he was dead.”
“I believed he might be.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“No.”
Victor did not defend himself.
That made Nora even more uneasy.
Adrian disappeared eight years earlier after a violent argument with
Victor.
The dispute involved Kane Biomedical, the company Victor had founded and
later sold.
Adrian had worked in its genetics division.
“He accused me of approving research I didn’t understand,” Victor said.
“Did you?”
Victor looked away.
“Yes.”
Harris listened carefully.
“What research?”
“A private neonatal screening program.”
Harris stood.
“What was it called?”
Victor hesitated.
“Project Lantern.”
Harris went pale again.
Nora noticed.
“You know it.”
“I’ve seen the name.”
“Where?”
“In the archived St. Catherine’s files.”
Victor stared.
Harris explained that Project Lantern funded genetic screening equipment
in several hospitals.
Officially, it studied hereditary disease.
But some consent records were incomplete.
Victor closed his eyes.
“I shut it down.”
“When?”
“After Adrian confronted me.”
“And then he disappeared.”
“Yes.”
Nora looked at the black medical case.
“Who owned that?”
Victor answered immediately.
“Adrian.”
Everyone stared.
Victor touched the worn leather edge.
“I kept it after he left.”
Nora’s anger sharpened.
“You said it was yours.”
“It became mine.”
“That is not an answer.”
Victor looked ashamed.
The case had been stored in a bank vault for years.
Two weeks earlier, Victor received an anonymous message telling him to
retrieve it.
“What message?”
Victor handed over his phone.
The text read:
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO ADRIAN, BRING HIS CASE HOME.
Nora stared at him.
“You brought a mysterious case connected to your missing son into a
penthouse with my seven-year-old daughter?”
“I had it inspected.”
“By whom?”
Victor looked at Harris.
Harris frowned.
“Not me.”
“A private technician.”
The technician reported nothing unusual.
Which meant either the device had been missed or installed afterward.
Emily’s observation suddenly mattered even more.
Someone had entered the penthouse.
Someone had opened the case.
Someone had placed fresh sample vials inside.
Nora asked, “Why Emily?”
Victor had no answer.
Harris did.
“Because she may be the only living child in the family carrying the
same marker.”
Victor looked at him.
“What does that matter?”
Harris opened his laptop.
Project Lantern’s surviving files included references to a hereditary
condition.
Not an illness.
A treatment response.
Certain Kane descendants metabolized a rare class of cardiac drugs
differently.
Adrian had discovered it.
Victor frowned.
“So?”
“So the research had commercial value.”
Nora felt sick.
“Children were being screened for profit?”
Harris nodded reluctantly.
“Possibly.”
Then security called from downstairs.
The man with silver glasses had been identified from elevator footage.
His name was Dr. Malcolm Reeves.
Victor stood.
“I know him.”
Harris looked up sharply.
“So do I.”
Reeves had directed Project Lantern.
Victor had fired him when the program closed.
Nora asked the obvious question.
“Why would he come back after eight years?”
Victor stared at Adrian’s case.
“Because Adrian took something from him.”
“What?”
Victor looked at the hidden mechanism.
“The original research key.”
Nora frowned.
“What is a research key?”
Harris answered.
“An encryption credential.”
Victor nodded.
“Adrian hid it before he disappeared.”
Nora looked toward the room where Emily waited.
“And Reeves thinks it’s in that case.”
Victor said nothing.
Then Emily appeared in the doorway.
She had slipped away from the guard.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
She pointed at the case.
“It’s not in there.”
Nora stared.
“How do you know?”
Emily held up something tiny.
A brass disk no larger than a quarter.
“I took it out before Grandpa yelled.”
Victor went white.
May you like
The disk carried one engraved word.
LANTERN.
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