Chapter 28 - The Shadow on the Horizon Three months of uninterrupted peace followed the summit, allowing the Vatello empire to expand its digital and financial infrastructure across three continents. The streets of Chicago were quiet—too quiet, according to Nico’s tactical monitoring systems.
Late one Tuesday night, while Leo slept in his quarters, Dante stood alone in the lower vault reviewing an encrypted transmission intercepted from an unknown maritime vessel anchored off the coast of Nova Scotia.
The file contained a single audio recording and a blueprint.
The audio was a digitized voice speaking in clipped, tactical terms: “The Chicago experiment was a success. The boy proved the biological viability. Phase Two of the Genesis Project initiates in sixty days.”
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Dante’s blood ran cold. The conspiracy that had tried to destroy his bloodline wasn't just a regional syndicate power struggle or a corrupt federal judge's plot. It was something far larger—an international bio-engineering syndicate that had manipulated his DNA markers from birth to cultivate a bloodline they intended to control.
Before Dante could decrypt the geographic coordinates of the transmission, the estate’s primary power grid violently flickered and died.
