Chapter 3 - THE VOICE ON THE PHONE
By midnight, Robert had turned his penthouse apartment in Tribeca into a high-security medical ward.
Ethan was asleep, hooked up to diagnostic machines that hummed quietly. Dr. Sarah Jenkins, the lead neurosurgeon who had designed Ethan’s implant, paced back and forth in front of Robert’s mahogany desk.
"This is medically impossible, Robert," Dr. Jenkins said, running a hand through her hair. "The neural-interface chip was designed to stimulate damaged pathways. But what we saw today... it’s like someone uploaded a new operating system directly into his central nervous system. His nerves didn't heal. They were commanded to move by an external force."
"The girl," Robert said, staring out the window at the rain-soaked New York skyline. "She did something."
"Who is she?"
"I don't know," Robert said. "But she mentioned Apex Biotech. Marcus is tracking the satellite signal, but it’s heavily encrypted."
Suddenly, the private, unlisted phone on Robert’s desk began to vibrate.
It was a phone only three people in the world had the number to.
Robert snatched the receiver. "Who is this?"
A distorted, metallic voice spoke on the other end. It was artificially modulated, making it impossible to determine if the speaker was male or female.
"Do you like the preview, Robert?" the voice asked.
"If you touched my son, I will hunt you to the ends of the earth," Robert growled. "I have enough money to buy your entire life. Who are you?"
"You didn't buy Apex Biotech to save lives, Robert. You bought it to bury the Lazarus Project," the voice replied calmly. "You wanted the patents for yourself so no one else could dominate the bionic market. But you forgot one thing: you can't bury the truth. The girl you saw today is named Lily. She is the first successful prototype of the Lazarus system."
Robert’s heart stopped. The Lazarus Project.
It was a myth. A rumored research project into human neural-link integration that Apex Biotech was supposedly working on before he shut them down. He had bought the company precisely to destroy the research, fearing it would make his own medical investments obsolete.
"What do you want?" Robert whispered.
May you like
"The girl’s system is failing. She needs the raw biological stabilizer locked inside your private vault in Geneva. The code you took from Apex. Bring it to the abandoned industrial docks in Brooklyn tomorrow night at midnight. If you do, we will upload the permanent code to heal Ethan's spine. If you don't... the temporary signal we sent to your son's chip will overload, and his nervous system will fry from the inside out."
The line went dead.
