Chapter 41 - Circles of Protection
By sunrise, the rain had stopped, leaving Manhattan veiled in thick, pewter-colored fog.
My immediate priority wasn't Helios, nor was it the stolen data. It was our family.
"Liam has already secured the house in Greenwich," Marcus said, ending a call on an encrypted satellite phone. "Leo, Valerie, and little Sarah were moved at three-thirty this morning under full armed escort. They are behind reinforced steel, guarded by six former Tier-One operators. No one gets within five miles of that property without clearance."
A wave of relief washed over me, though the knot in my stomach remained tight. "Thank you, Marcus."
"We’re in this together, Sarah. Always," he said, stepping close and placing a steady, warm hand on the nape of my neck. "Helios overreached. They operated in the shadows because they couldn't beat your science in the sunlight. Now that they’ve drawn blood on American soil, the rules change."
I turned back to the laptop screen. "Look at this file, Marcus."
I pointed to a folder marked *Project Caduceus*.
It contained Helios’s internal clinical projections for the commercial variant of our pediatric cure. What they intended to do was monstrous. They hadn't just copied my gene-therapy vectors; they had inserted a proprietary bio-inhibitor designed to cause gradual patient relapse after twenty-four months, requiring an indefinite course of a secondary, high-margin booster shot.
They were turning a permanent, life-saving cure into a lifetime subscription model for dying children.
"They aren't just thieves," I said, my voice shaking with an icy rage I hadn't felt since the day I watched my former mother-in-law auction off my dignity. "They are butchers."
"Then we destroy them," Marcus replied, his eyes narrowing with lethal intent. "Not just in the courts, and not just in the media. We dismantle their infrastructure until there is nothing left of Helios to salvage."
The secure phone on the table buzzed. Marcus picked it up and tapped the speaker button.
May you like
"Director Lin, Mr. Vance," the voice of Arthur Sterling, our chief legal counsel, crackled through the line. He sounded breathless, his usual polished composure frayed. "Turn on the international news feeds immediately. They’ve launched their strike."
***
