Chapter 7 - The Empty Safe
The rain had slowed to a steady, misting drizzle by the time Liam and Julian reached the detached carriage house at the far end of the estate property. The old stone building had once served as a carriage house for horses a century ago, but Liam had converted the upper floor into his private laboratory and residence years ago, preferring the isolation of the gardens to the stifling atmosphere of the main manor.
Julian unlocked the heavy wooden side door with an old-fashioned brass key, coughing slightly as the dry, sterile scent of ozone and copper hit his senses. The laboratory was dark except for the green glow of backup server racks humming quietly in the corner and the amber indicator lights on three closed-circuit monitors displaying real-time data from the clinical trials.
"She’s going to tear everything down to the foundation before she lets you walk away with the patents, Liam," Julian said, sinking heavily into an ergonomic leather chair near the workbench. He rubbed his tired eyes with trembling fingers. "Your mother isn't just a corporate strategist; she’s a survivor of an era where mercy was treated as a fatal weakness."
Liam walked over to the reinforced steel safe built into the stone wall behind his desk, pulling a small mechanical dial toward him. He spun the numbers with fluid, practiced precision—twenty-one, forty-two, seven, twelve—the combination he had memorized as a teenager when his father first taught him the value of secure research.
The heavy steel door swung open with a pneumatic hiss, revealing the interior compartments bathed in amber LED light.
It was completely empty.
Liam froze, his hand resting on the open door. The physical hard drives containing the phase-three trial data for the neurodegenerative drug—months of patient results, proprietary chemical formulas, and FDA compliance filings—were gone. In their place lay a single, neatly folded sheet of heavy cream stationery embossed with the Vance Global corporate crest.
Julian stood up, walking over to peer into the dark recess of the safe. "Who knew the combination? Besides you?"
"Only two people on earth," Liam whispered, his voice dangerously tight. "Myself... and Clara."
"Clara didn't have access to the laboratory security clearance," Julian pointed out, his brow furrowing in deep concentration. "The biometric scanner requires your thumbprint or a high-level override code from the main estate terminal."
Liam pulled the heavy cream stationery out of the safe and unfolded it. Scrawled across the expensive paper in familiar, looping handwriting were just two sentences:
You thought you were the only one playing chess, Liam. Check the safety deposit box at the Zurich branch.
May you like
Before Liam could process the implication of the note, the laboratory’s main computer screen flickered violently, the green data streams replaced by a high-definition video feed streaming live from the private driveway outside the main manor.
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