Chapter 17 - The Unforgivable TruthThe words hung in the suffocating silence of the boardroom like a physical blow.
My pistol wavered for a fraction of a second. I turned my head slowly, looking back at Elena. She stood frozen beside the doorway, her rifle still raised, but her face had gone completely pale, drained of every drop of color as her breathing hitched in her throat.
"What is he talking about?" I demanded, my voice cracking with a sudden, terrifying dread.
Elena didn't answer. She couldn't. Her eyes were locked onto Sterling with a look of pure, unadulterated terror and betrayal.
"She didn't tell you, did she?" Sterling laughed softly, leaning back in his executive chair, completely unbothered by the gun barrel pointed at his face. "Elena wasn't just Genevieve's research assistant, Lawson. She was the lead bio-chemist who engineered the primary compound. She built the weapon that Vane and I deployed. She only turned on us when she realized we intended to destroy the lab records to cover our tracks."
I spun back to face Elena, my chest heaving as the world seemed to collapse around me.
"Is this true?" I whispered, the words tasting like absolute poison on my tongue. "Did you build the pathogen that almost killed my children?"
Elena’s hands trembled. For the first time since I met her outside my gates, the untouchable, ice-cold armor she wore cracked completely. Tears welled in her eyes, spilling over her cheeks as she lowered her weapon an inch.
"I didn't know how they were going to use it, Lawson," she choked out, her voice breaking violently. "I was young, desperate, trapped in a research contract with the syndicate before I knew what they were truly capable of. When I found out they were testing it on human subjects—on children—I tried to destroy the samples. That’s when they tried to kill me in Detroit. That’s how I got this scar."
"She’s lying!" Sterling spat, his voice rising sharply. "She sold the patent to the highest bidder! She’s the reason your wife died, Mercer—she leaked Genevieve's investigation to us because your wife was getting too close to exposing her work!"
Before Sterling could utter another word, a deafening roar shook the entire estate.
BOOM.
The heavy mahogany doors behind us were blown completely off their hinges by a concussive blast of C4 explosives. A wave of superheated air and choking black smoke swept into the boardroom, sending us all crashing to the floor.
Through the billowing smoke, a heavily armed tactical squad wearing unbranded black body armor swarmed into the room, their assault rifles raised and locked directly on us.
And leading them wasn't one of Sterling’s men.
May you like
It was a familiar, scarred face I had thought was buried six months ago.
Prescott Hale.
