Chapter 16 - The Blood Pact of Lake Geneva
The storm had followed them northwest. By late afternoon, a convoy of three armored SUVs tore through the dense, fog-drenched pine forests surrounding Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The old Montgomery summer manor stood like a gothic fortress on the edge of the black, churning lake.
Clara sat in the back of the lead SUV, her shoulder wrapped in bandages, her body still aching from the paralytic shock. Baby Leo had been transported under heavy military escort to a secure bunker in an undisclosed federal facility in Colorado with Maya’s trusted colleagues. Clara had refused to hide.
"She wants me," Clara had told Julian before they left Chicago. "As long as I run, she will hunt my son. The only way Leo ever sleeps peacefully is if Victoria Montgomery is put into the earth."
Julian stepped out of the vehicle, racking the slide of his tactical rifle. Detective Miller and four state tactical officers fanned out across the overgrown gravel driveway. The manor was completely dark, its towering Victorian windows reflecting the flash of distant lightning.
"The thermal cameras are picking up an internal heat source in the submerged boathouse," Miller signaled with hand gestures. "Power is running off an auxiliary generator. She’s down there."
"Julian, wait," Clara grabbed his sleeve as they approached the rotting wooden steps of the boathouse. The structure was built directly over the lake water, half-submerged, with wooden docks inside where antique speedboats used to be moored. "The accomplice said she unlocked the *Nautilus Global* trust. Why? Why would she need hundreds of millions of dollars if she only wanted to murder us?"
Julian’s jaw tightened. "Because our father didn't just leave money in that trust, Clara. In the 1990s, my father ran illegal human trials for experimental pharmaceuticals through an offshore entity. He made his entire first fortune by selling defective aquatic safety equipment to military contractors. Victoria found his private diaries before he died. The trust isn't just cash—it contains the original blackmail ledgers that can destroy half the political elite in this country. With that money and those files, Victoria isn't just an escaped convict. She’s an untouchable shadow."
Suddenly, the floodlights of the boathouse snapped on with a deafening hum.
A loudspeaker mounted above the boathouse doors crackled to life, broadcasting Victoria’s real voice—not a proxy, not a recording, but her cold, aristocratic, razor-sharp voice echoing across the mist-covered water.
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*“Welcome home, little brother. I see you brought the drowning girl with you. How chivalrous. Come inside, Julian. Just you and Clara. If a single badge steps on the wooden dock, the thermite charges strapped to the foundation will ignite. The entire lake will become an inferno.”*
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