Chapter 11 - The Seventy-Two-Hour Clock
Older Emma arranged an unregistered aircraft and took us toward Europe.
We were followed over Canada and switched to an old cargo turboprop at a remote airstrip before the pursuing aircraft could intercept us.
During the flight, a file appeared on our secure terminal.
It contained a photograph of a fourteen-year-old boy standing outside a Zurich school.
He had Luca's face.
The name beneath the image was Noah Maren Vale.
A second line appeared.
ADRIAN HAS HIM.
Luca stared at the picture like a man seeing the life he had missed.
Clara, despite all her anger, told him not to blame himself for a child he had never known existed.
Little Emma studied Noah's picture and declared that he looked grumpy.
She was delighted to learn she might have a brother.
The rest of us understood that another child had just become another target.
Mateo found traffic footage showing Noah leaving school with Isabella in a Helvetia vehicle driven by one of Mercer's senior security men.
We landed in Switzerland and split up.
Mateo and older Emma went toward Helvetia.
Luca, Clara, little Emma, and I went to Isabella's apartment in KĂŒsnacht.
The apartment had been searched violently.
Blood led us to the balcony.
Isabella was there, alive but badly wounded.
She recognized Luca and gave him a bitter smile.
"Fourteen years late."
Then she confirmed what none of us could deny.
Noah was Luca's son.
She had tried to tell him before he disappeared.
Adrian had taken Noah to Helvetia because the original ledger contained a male-line succession clause.
Noah, not Emma, might be the true bridge between the Vale and Mercer bloodlines.
Luca carried Isabella out.
Mateo called from inside Helvetia.
Gunfire exploded through the connection.
His final message was clear.
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"Sebastian, Noah is opening the vault."
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