Chapter 7 - INTO THE SHADOWSThe cold Manhattan wind hit Emily’s face as she scanned the wet asphalt of the alleyway. The distant wail of sirens echoed off the towering brick skyscrapers, but in the immediate shadows, movement caught her eye.
A figure in a dark trench coat was sprinting toward a waiting black sedan idling at the end of the alley.
“Hey!” Emily shouted, breaking into a dead sprint after the fleeing assassin.
“Emily, no! It’s too dangerous!” Lorenzo’s voice called out behind her. Despite his weakness, the billionaire had staggered out of the dining room, following her into the cold night air, with Daniel right behind him.
The black sedan’s tires screeched against the wet pavement, kicking up a spray of dirty slush as it accelerated toward Fifth Avenue. But as the car sped away, something fluttered out of the passenger window—a small, silver flash drive that landed squarely in a puddle near a pile of trash bags.
Emily skidded to a halt, ignoring the freezing water, and scooped the flash drive up from the ground.
She plugged it directly into the diagnostic port of her smartphone. A single folder appeared on the screen, labeled simply: PROJECT_ICARUS_MASTER_FILES.
Lorenzo caught up to her, breathing heavily, leaning against the brick wall for support. He looked down at the phone screen, and his face went completely pale.
“Project Icarus...” Lorenzo whispered, his voice trembling. “That was my father’s original biometric medical research program. We thought it was destroyed in the fire twenty years ago.”
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“It wasn't destroyed,” Emily said quietly, looking up at him with eyes full of hard truth. “It was stolen. And your own board of directors used it to build a global surveillance and assassination network disguised as consumer medical technology.”
Lorenzo stared at the young woman he had mocked less than two hours ago. The waitress who had served his coffee was holding the single most dangerous piece of corporate espionage data in the western hemisphere.
