Chapter 9 - The Stitched Secret
The words hung in the frigid air of the warehouse, crashing over me with the force of a physical blow.
The stuffed rabbit.
Norah had clutched that worn toy with the pink-stitched ear to her chest every second since I found her on the park bench. It wasn't just a comforting childhood keepsake; it was the vault. The entire financial conspiracy, the evidence of embezzlement, bribery, and corporate corruption draining millions from public foundations into private offshore accounts, was hidden inside a child’s toy.
Beside me, Marcus caught my eye, his hand resting firmly on his weapon. He looked for a signal.
Before I could nod, a sudden, sharp alert chime rang out from the computer terminal across the room.
Sterling frowned, stepping closer to the monitors. “What is that?”
“Someone’s trying to remotely access the decryption sequence,” the scar-faced man said, his fingers flying across the keyboard. “They’re pinging our server from a secure medical terminal at St. Jude Memorial.”
My breath caught.
Norah.
She must have woken up in the pediatric ward. In her confusion and fear, looking for her mother or a familiar connection, she must have turned on the small emergency tablet provided by the hospital nurses, accidentally triggering a localized broadcast beacon tied to the encrypted drive inside her toy.
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“They’re at the hospital,” Sterling hissed, his face twisting into a mask of pure panic. “Get a team down to St. Jude immediately. If Vale gets to that child before we do, our entire operation goes public by morning.”
Marcus looked at me, his eyes dead serious. “Sir. We need to move. Now.”
