Chapter 67 - Mobilization in the Shadows
Thirty minutes later, Director Arthur Vance’s sedan had pulled away from the diner curb, leaving me sitting alone in the red vinyl booth with the manila folder and a cold cup of coffee. I hadn't touched my pancakes. The appetite for an ordinary breakfast had completely vanished, replaced by the cold, familiar clarity of an operative returning to the board.
I walked out of the diner into the bright midday sun, pulling my phone from my pocket. With a steady hand, I dialed Ethan’s private encrypted frequency.
It rang exactly once before the line clicked open.
“Took you long enough, Commander,” Ethan’s voice crackled through the speaker, accompanied by the familiar, distant clatter of cascading terminal windows. “I assume Director Vance dropped off a lovely little dossier detailing our next vacation destination in Geneva?”
“You intercepted his feed?” I asked, walking briskly toward my parked SUV.
“Please. Vance’s encryption protocols are five years out of date,” Ethan scoffed lightly over the line. “I’ve been tracking the Iron Veil’s sub-net architecture for the past forty-eight hours. They’ve set up a heavy research campus on the outskirts of Geneva, masked behind a legitimate biotechnology front called Helix BioCorp. It’s crawling with private security contractors and automated biometric lockdown gates.”
“Can we bypass their perimeter without triggering a localized security grid?” I asked, opening the driver’s side door and tossing Arthur’s manila folder onto the passenger seat.
“Bypass it? Commander, I can hack their local fiber-optic trunk line from a coffee shop across the street and give you a master override code that will open every internal door in their facility like a VIP guest pass,” Ethan said with absolute, unyielding confidence. “When do we deploy?”
“Pack the high-tier gear,” I ordered, starting the engine. “Meet me at the private airstrip in Reno in thirty-six hours. We’re heading to Switzerland.”
“Copy that,” Ethan replied. “Should I tell your father you’re stepping out for another quick errand?”
May you like
I paused, looking back through the rear window toward the direction of our family home. The brick colonial stood tall and peaceful against the backdrop of the Indiana autumn trees. My father was probably still sitting on the porch, worrying about zoning permits and park pavilions.
“No,” I said quietly, gripping the steering wheel. “I’ll tell him myself before I leave.”
