Chapter 7: The Apex Protocol
Inside the house, Leo sat at the kitchen table, struggling to complete his homework while the events outside played heavily on his mind. He had seen his father pin the man against the fence through the frosted glass of the back door. The realization that his medical braces were somehow tied to corporate espionage or high-stakes defense contracts made the heavy metal contraption feel even more sinister than before.
When Thomas walked back inside, locking the deadbolt with a heavy thud, his face was impassigned, though his breathing was slightly elevated. He took off his jacket and tossed it over the back of a chair, walking straight to the kitchen sink to splash cold water on his face.
"Who was that, Dad?" Leo asked, laying down his pencil.
Thomas dried his face with a paper towel and turned around, leaning against the counter. "Just a corporate representative. They're upset about the prototype we returned."
"Is it about the money?"
"It's never just about the money, Leo," Thomas said, pulling out a chair and sitting down across from his son. "It's about control. That company spent millions developing the Gen-Four neural interface. If word gets out that their flagship pediatric model causes actuator lockups under normal physical stress, their stock tanks, and the Pentagon cancels their billion-dollar supply contracts. They don't care about your knees. They care about their public image and their government grants."
Leo looked down at his hands, feeling a cold knot twist in his stomach. "So they were spying on us? Through the brace?"
"The telemetry unit tracked your movement, your muscle response, and your location twenty-four hours a day," Thomas admitted, hating how the truth sounded. "I should have read the fine print on the waiver. I saw 'military-grade rehabilitation' and I trusted the system. That was my mistake."
Just then, the living room television—which had been playing a local news broadcast at low volume—interrupted with a breaking news bulletin. The anchor’s voice caught their attention: “Developing tonight: Apex Biomechanics has announced a sudden executive shakeup following an unconfirmed safety review of their neural-linked mobility prosthetics. Stock analysts report a sudden drop in investor confidence...”
Thomas stared at the screen, his mind racing. They weren't just trying to recover the prototype quietly; they were trying to cover up a systemic failure before federal regulators launched an independent audit. And that meant the Vance family was sitting on the single most damaging piece of physical evidence in the entire investigation.
"Pack your things, Leo," Thomas said suddenly, standing up from the table.
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"Pack? Where are we going?"
"We're going to stay at your aunt's cabin in the mountains for a few days," Thomas said, grabbing his car keys from the hook by the door. "Until Sarah and I can get those telemetry logs off the brace's backup chip and deliver them directly to the federal inspector general."
