The sudden silence inside St. Matthew’s Cathedral felt heavier than the vault doors of Mercer Global Holdings. Every eye was locked on the small piece of silver hanging from the faded blue ribbon in Grace Bennett’s trembling fingers.

Before Grace could process the command, Alexander lunged across the room, tackling her hard to the hardwood floor just as a deafening CRACK shattered the reinforced glass window.

A bullet tore through the mahogany bookshelf behind them, showering the room in splinters and pulverized leather-bound volumes.

"We're compromised!" one of the security guards yelled, drawing his weapon and diving toward the heavy oak doors, slamming the deadbolts into place. "Perimeter breach! Someone is targeting the library!"

"Dad! Get me out of here!" Madeline shrieked, panic finally breaking through her cold exterior as she frantically tried to pull her handcuffed wrists from the iron chair.

Senator Prescott crawled behind the massive oak desk, trembling violently. "Who's out there? Is it the board? Did you leak the acquisition plans, Alexander?"

"No," Alexander said, shielding Grace with his body on the floor. He glanced up toward the dark glass of the shattered window. The trajectory pointed directly toward the old clock tower across the estate gardens. "That wasn't a corporate hit. That was professional."

Grace looked up at Alexander, her face inches from his. Even in the chaos, with death literally whistling through the air, her eyes were steady.

"The flash drive," Grace panted, her heart hammering against his chest. "There's a third file on it. The encryption key isn't my password... it's your mother's wedding anniversary date."

Alexander’s eyes widened. He quickly scrambled back toward the desk, keeping low below the windowline. His fingers flew across the keyboard, typing in the six-digit date: 10-14-78.

The screen flashed green. A hidden partition opened, revealing a high-definition security camera feed recorded from inside the Mercer family vault down in the basement.

The timestamp showed it was recorded only four hours before Eleanor Mercer’s funeral.

On the screen, a figure dressed entirely in black tactical gear stood in front of the open vault. The person slid back a false wall panel, revealing a stack of physical documents and a secondary hard drive labeled Project Janus.

Alexander’s breath hitched in his throat. Project Janus wasn't just a corporate file. It was the classified government defense contract that made Mercer Global a multi-trillion-dollar entity thirty years ago—the exact contract his father had allegedly killed to secure.

And then, on the grainy video feed, the figure in black turned around, pulled down their ski mask, and looked directly into the lens.