Chapter 3
The silence that followed Walter's words was absolute, broken only by the steady, shallow rhythm of Clara’s breathing. Julian instinctively reached into his breast pocket, pulling out his smartphone. The screen was completely black, devoid of service bars, Wi-Fi connectivity, or even the emergency SOS icon. The internal network had been cleanly, silently severed.
"Why would you jam the building?" Julian asked, taking a deliberate step away from Clara to shield her from the direct line of sight from the stairs. His mind raced through every corporate protocol, searching for a legal or procedural justification for cutting communication in a medical emergency. There was none. This was an overt hostile action.
"You're a brilliant financial auditor, Julian, but you're terribly naive about what it takes to keep a billion-dollar biotech firm afloat," Walter said, descending another three steps before stopping again. His dark shirt caught the light, revealing the subtle outline of a heavy radio harness beneath the fabric. "Clara found the discrepancy in the waste disposal manifests. She realized that eighty percent of the toxic byproduct wasn't being incinerated as reported. It was being piped directly into the municipal water table of the lower residential district."
Julian felt a sickening drop in his stomach. He looked down at Clara, whose face had gone pale. She gave an imperceptible nod, confirming the horrifying truth.
"You're poisoning a city," Julian whispered, the words tasting like ash in his mouth.
"We're cutting costs to ensure the merger goes through," Walter corrected smoothly, taking another step down. "If the board finds out about the environmental liabilities, the stock craters, the acquisition fails, and thousands of jobs vanish. We are saving the company, Julian. You should be thanking us."
"By letting a nurse bleed out on a marble floor while toxic oil leaks from the ceiling?" Julian retorted, his anger finally breaking through his professional reserve. "You're not saving the company, Walter. You're covering up mass murder."
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Walter’s expression hardened instantly. The polite veneer vanished, leaving behind the cold calculation of a man with nothing left to lose. He didn't answer with words. Instead, he reached behind his back and pressed a heavy red button embedded in the wall beside the staircase landing.
A high-pitched mechanical whine began to build from deep within the walls, vibrating through the floorboards beneath Julian’s shoes.
