Chapter 49 - The Final Transaction
"The police are surrounding the hospital, Vanessa," Nathan lied, his voice dropping into a steady, measured baritone to keep her from detonating whatever trap she had prepared. "Valmont’s men are dead at the armory. It’s over. Give me the vial, and we walk out of here."
Vanessa tilted her head, studying Nathan with an expression of heartbreaking pity. "Oh, my sweet, naive boy. Do you honestly think Valmont was my creditor?"
She reached out with a trembling, blood-stained finger and pressed a key on the central server console. The bank of flat-screen monitors above the empty hospital bed flickered to life, illuminating the dark room in a harsh, electric blue glow.
The screens displayed a live satellite telemetry feed. A private Boeing 747 was currently holding a holding pattern at thirty thousand feet directly above the storm clouds over New York. On the manifest displayed on the right side of the screen, under the header *PRIMARY CONSIGNEE*, Nathan saw a name that turned his blood to absolute ice:
*NATHAN MERCER ARCHITECTURAL TRUST — GENEVA.*
"You set me up," Nathan whispered, the horrific scale of the trap finally dawning on him. "Every dollar, every shell company, every offshore account... you put them in my name."
"From the day we met," Vanessa whispered, her eyes shining with madness and perverse pride. "If I go down, Nathan, you are the international fugitive. You are the architect of the Caldwell human cloning conspiracy. You are the man who financed the black clinic in Saint Jude. You are the monster who harvested the children."
She raised the bone saw, pointing the whirring, serrated blade directly at Eli.
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"And now, my darling... it’s time to finalize the divorce."
Before Nathan could pull the trigger, the emergency blast doors behind them slammed shut with a deafening hydraulic hiss, sealing Nathan, Miller, Eli, and Vanessa inside Room 704.
