Chapter 49 - The Brother’s Ghost
The interceptor nudged gently against the weathered wood of the private dock. Ethan kept his hand steady on the steering console while I stepped smoothly onto the pier, my weapon lowered but ready, my eyes locked on David Vance.
He looked older, weathered by years of living in the shadows, wearing a faded canvas jacket and a quiet, melancholic smile that bore a striking, haunting resemblance to Michael.
“You’re a hard woman to reach, Avery,” David said smoothly, pouring a cup of coffee from his thermos and holding it out toward me. “I had to route a message through an old dead-man relay just to make sure you didn't shoot me on sight.”
“We buried you in Geneva four years ago, David,” I replied coldly, ignoring the coffee and keeping my distance. “Your brother spent two years mourning your loss before he started building this sanctuary. How is it that you’re standing here on a private dock in Lake Tahoe?”
David let out a soft, humorless sigh, setting the metal cup down on the wooden railing. “Because dying in Geneva was the only way to keep Aegis from using me as leverage against Michael. When you tear down a corrupt system from the inside, Avery, you quickly realize that the rot runs deeper than a single corporation or a black-budget project like Ironclad.”
Sarah stepped out of the cabin of the interceptor, gasping softly as she recognized him. “David? My God... Michael searched everywhere for you.”
“And if he had found me, Aegis would have killed us both,” David said, his voice hardening with genuine sorrow. “Look, I didn’t come here to dredge up family ghosts. I came here because when you and Ethan raided The Vault of the Black Forest, you only severed the head of the snake. You didn't kill the venom.”
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Ethan stepped off the boat onto the dock, walking up beside me. “What are you talking about? The global financial ledgers are frozen, the board members are in custody, and the DOJ has seized every asset.”
“They seized the public assets,” David corrected, reaching into his canvas jacket and pulling out a small, encrypted microchip wrapped in lead-lined foil. He tossed it across the wood to me. “Aegis was just a front for an older, more entrenched consortium—a group that doesn't care about corporate profits or government contracts. They care about biological and digital sovereignty. And they’ve already initiated Phase Two.”
