Chapter 10: Ashes of the Evidence
The car’s tires crunched over loose gravel as Detective Chen pulled off the service road into a secluded, wooded overlook. Below them, nestled in the valley, the sprawling brick complex of the Westbridge pharmaceutical facility billowed thick, black plumes of smoke into the predawn sky. Red and blue emergency lights flashed frantically against the tree trunks, painting the forest in an erratic, pulsing glow.
Julian stared down at the burning facility in absolute disbelief. "Burned? How? Alistair was locked in the lab with us!"
"Vance doesn't need to be present to execute a scorched-earth protocol," Chen explained, killing the engine and turning to face Julian directly. Her eyes were hard, stripped of any professional detachment. "He has automated triggers tied to his biometric status. The moment Miller’s team took him into custody without a secure network handshake, the facility’s core incinerated every hard drive on site."
Julian gripped the USB drive in his hand so tightly that the plastic casing dug painfully into his raw skin. "Then this... this drive is useless?"
"Not necessarily," Chen said, reaching into her glove compartment and pulling out a ruggedized, military-grade laptop. She tossed it onto the center console between them. "Clara was paranoid—rightfully so. She knew Alistair had fail-safes. This drive doesn't just connect to Westbridge; it contains the decryption key for the cold-storage backups hidden underneath the city’s water treatment plant."
Julian exhaled a long, shaky breath, the tension in his shoulders easing just a fraction. "The water plant? Why there?"
"Because nobody investigates the municipal infrastructure," Chen replied, opening the laptop and plugging Clara’s drive into the ruggedized port. A series of green initialization lines scrolled down the black screen before halting abruptly at a biometric security prompt requiring a live iris scan.
Julian frowned, leaning closer to the screen. "A biometric lock? Whose eyes does it need?"
"Alistair’s," Chen said flatly. "Or someone with matching genetic markers."
Julian slowly raised his head, staring at the detective through the dim interior light of the car. A cold realization washed over him, chilling him far more than the underground laboratory ever had.
"Maya," Julian whispered. "Maya has Alistair's genetic profile."
"Exactly," Chen nodded, pulling a small, encrypted radio from her tactical belt. "Which means we need to intercept her transfer vehicle before Vance’s private security detail intercepts it first."
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Before Chen could press the transmission button, the driver’s side window exploded inward in a shower of glittering glass shards. A heavy, gloved hand reached through the broken frame, grabbed Chen by the collar of her jacket, and violently yanked her head backward against the headrest.
Julian screamed, lunging across the console, but a second figure yanked the passenger door open, grabbing him by his injured wrists and hauling him out onto the cold, wet gravel of the overlook.
