Chapter 14 - THE ROOM WITHOUT MIRRORS
The address led Valerie to a shuttered photography studio in Queens.
Sebastian was waiting inside.
He had escaped federal custody with help from a young agent loyal to Margaret’s former unit.
Valerie struck him across the face before embracing him.
“You do not get to disappear.”
“I was arrested.”
“That is a technical excuse.”
For one brief moment, they held each other without secrets.
Then Sebastian saw Marcus’s subway card.
He cut open the lining of his jacket and removed a surgical scar map his mother had sewn there years ago.
The mark beneath his shoulder matched the diagram.
A retired surgeon arrived with portable equipment.
He removed a capsule no larger than a grain of rice.
Valerie inserted the real silver key into a decoder.
The archive opened.
Millions of records appeared on the studio wall.
One folder was titled PROJECT MERIDIAN.
It described Conrad’s plan to trigger coordinated financial failures, buy essential infrastructure through shell companies, and force governments to depend on Ward Meridian credit.
The final phase was scheduled for midnight the following day.
Another file contained names of everyone helping him.
Margaret Sloan was listed as CONTROL.
Adrian Ward was listed as SUCCESSOR.
Sebastian stared at his brother’s name.
Valerie touched his arm.
“It could be planted.”
“Everything could be planted.”
The studio lights went out.
A projector switched on by itself.
Adrian’s face appeared on the wall.
“You finally opened it,” he said in a prerecorded message.
“Now you have exactly what Conrad wanted you to have.”
The archive began deleting itself.
Sebastian lunged for the decoder.
A final document flashed on screen before disappearing.
It was a marriage certificate.
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The names were Eleanor Voss and Adrian Ward.
The date was twenty-eight years earlier.
