Chapter 17 - The Shadow Syndicate Strikes
"They don't want to kill him," Julian whispered, the realization hitting him like a physical blow. "They poisoned the cake not to assassinate Leo... but to put him in a medical state where they could harvest his bone marrow without raising suspicion."
Evelyn stood in the doorway of the mausoleum, her face pale as marble. "Victoria’s dosage wasn't meant to be lethal. She used too much almond extract because she was clumsy, greedy, and stupid. The syndicate’s plan was always to hospitalize Leo, declare him brain-dead under their controlled doctors, and transfer his body to Alistair’s private laboratory."
"And when I saved him," Julian said, his jaw clenching so hard a tooth cracked, "their entire timeline collapsed."
Julian’s encrypted phone buzzed violently in his pocket. It was Marcus.
Julian answered, his voice trembling with fury. "Marcus! Tell me the safe house is secure!"
The line was filled with static, punctuated by the sharp, concussive crack of heavy-caliber gunfire and the screeching of tearing steel.
"Sir! We are under full-scale assault!" Marcus screamed through the receiver, his voice strained and ragged. "Black-ops team... thermite charges blew through the subterranean vault doors! They're not using standard arms... they have military-grade flashbangs and sonic disrupters! We've taken three casualties!"
"Hold them off!" Julian roared, sprinting back toward the Maybach. "I am ten minutes away! Do not let them breach Leo's room!"
"Julian... they didn't come to breach," Marcus choked out, coughing through thick tear gas. "They hijacked the air filtration system! They pumped neurotoxin gas through the vents! We had to evacuate Leo through the underground utility tunnel beneath the pool house!"
"Where is he now?" Julian demanded, flooring the accelerator as the Maybach rocketed down the winding cemetery road.
"I’m with him... in the armored Suburban... heading west toward the Pacific Coast Highway... but we have three black SUVs on our tail! They’re boxing us in at Topanga Canyon! Julian, they're trying to push us over the clif—"
The line went dead with a horrific screech of twisting metal and the sound of a violent explosion.
"Marcus!" Julian screamed, slamming the steering wheel. "Marcus!"
Silence answered. Only the hollow hum of the disconnected satellite line remained.
Evelyn immediately brought up the live tracking interface on her dashboard. A small red dot representing Marcus's emergency transponder was flashing erratically on the digital map of Topanga Canyon, moving at fifty miles per hour, then suddenly dropping fifty feet down a vertical elevation curve before coming to a complete dead stop.
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"Julian," Evelyn said, her voice shaking for the first time. "The vehicle went over the guardrail."
***
