Chapter 42 - Crossing the Atlantic
The private Gulfstream cut through a starless night sky, heading east toward Switzerland. Inside the cabin, the atmosphere was dense with strategy documents, financial ledgers, and legal briefs prepared by Arthur Vance and our top corporate counsel.
Arthur sat across from me, reviewing a dossier on Ambassador Laurent and the key members of the WHO oversight panel. He looked exhausted, the faint lines around his eyes a testament to the relentless pace we had maintained since the Azores raid.
"Laurent isn't acting alone," Arthur said, sliding a confidential background memo across the mahogany table. "Our intelligence assets in Europe indicate that some of the board members on the WHO committee have historic ties to old European pharmaceutical conglomerates—conglomerates that lost billions when Vale Meridian absorbed Thorne Bio-Research and took control of the pediatric oncology patents."
"They're using the tribunal to pry open our proprietary genetic formulations," I said, tracing the edge of the memo with my finger. "If we testify, they'll demand access to our core algorithmic source code under the guise of 'ethical transparency.'"
"And if we refuse, they throttle our European clinical trials, cutting off funding for thousands of children who rely on our cellular regeneration therapies," Arthur added, his voice grim. "It's a classic squeeze play. They want to institutionalize our intellectual property so their domestic pharma giants can copy it."
I looked out the window at the endless, ink-black ocean far below. Two years ago, I thought my biggest battle was surviving the grief of losing my son and reclaiming my company from corrupt men like Julian Thorne. Now, I realized that building an empire meant inheriting every geopolitical and corporate enemy that envied its height.
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"They think I'm just a grieving mother who got lucky in the boardroom," I said softly, turning back to face Arthur with a cold, unyielding resolve. "They think they can intimidate me with a Geneva tribunal. Let them try. We aren't going to Switzerland to defend ourselves, Arthur. We are going there to rewrite the rules of international medical governance."
Arthur smiled, a rare, approving expression touching his lips. "I'll notify our legal team to prepare the offensive exhibits. Let's show Geneva what happens when you poke an unbreakable titan."
