Chapter 6 - THE SHADOW MASTER 🎭Khloe felt as if all the air had been sucked out of the helicopter cabin. She stared at her uncle, the man who had raised her after her father’s death, the man who had helped her plan her revenge for three long years.
"What... what are you saying?" she stammered, pulling herself back against the helicopter door.
"My brother Richard was a genius, but he was weak," Arthur said, his tone casual, almost bored. "He wanted to give his genetic discoveries away to the world for free. He wanted to cure diseases. What a foolish, naive waste of power."
Arthur leaned back in his leather seat, swirling his glass of scotch that the helicopter pilot had prepared for him.
"Ten years ago, Marcus Thorne didn't steal my brother's company," Arthur revealed. "I sold it to him. I framed Marcus so you would hate him. I engineered your entire life, Khloe. I guided you to that art gala. I made sure you fell in love with him, and I made sure you stayed angry enough to push him to the edge."
"You... you lied to me my whole life?" Khloe’s voice was barely a whisper, crushed by the sheer weight of the betrayal.
"You were the perfect delivery system," Arthur chuckled softly. "Marcus had the bio-tech facilities to pull off the cloning, but he needed a host body that wouldn't reject the tissue. Your body was the only one on Earth compatible with Richard's genetic material. Marcus thought he was playing me. I let him think he was the puppet master. But in reality, he built the technology, you grew the asset, and now... I take everything."
"Where are we going?" Khloe demanded, her hands clutching her stomach protectively.
"To a private island off the coast of Russia," Arthur replied. "Where the highest bidder will buy the child inside you for tens of billions of dollars. And once the child is delivered... well, you won't be needed anymore."
Khloe’s blood ran cold. She was trapped in the sky, thousands of feet above the ocean, with the man who had orchestrated her father’s downfall and spent a decade manipulating her existence.
Suddenly, the helicopter jolted violently.
The red warning lights inside the cockpit flashed frantically. A loud, piercing siren began to sound.
"What's happening?!" Arthur shouted, standing up and pounding on the glass divider leading to the pilot's cabin. "Pilot! Report!"
The pilot didn't respond. Instead, the electronic flight panel in front of him completely went black.
A voice came through the helicopter's intercom system—a calm, deep, terrifyingly familiar voice.
"Did you really think I didn't track the transponder on your helicopter, Arthur?"
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Khloe’s eyes widened. "Marcus..."
Outside the helicopter windows, through the thick rain and clouds, two massive military-grade attack helicopters emerged from the darkness, hovering on either side of them. Their searchlights cut through the night, pinning Arthur’s helicopter in a blinding beam of light.
