Chapter 7 - The Whistleblower’s Net
We hid in an abandoned industrial warehouse on the outskirts of the city—a property owned by Uncle David’s construction company that hadn't been used in years.
Outside, the rain had returned with a vengeance, hammering against the rusted tin roof. Inside, Julian had set up three laptops, portable signal arrays, and a satellite internet terminal connected to a secure server in Switzerland.
The black USB key card from the bank was plugged into Julian’s primary rig.
Lines of green and white code scrolled rapidly across the monitors, illuminating the dark warehouse with a cold, flickering glow.
"It’s all here," Julian whispered, his hands trembling as he scrolled through thousands of decrypted files. "My God... it’s worse than I thought."
I stood behind him, wrapped in a blanket, holding a warm cup of coffee. "What do you mean?"
"The Vascularis-9 trial wasn't just sabotaged to collect insurance money," Julian revealed, pointing at a series of internal emails dated six months ago. "They were using the pediatric trial as a cover to test an unauthorized, weapons-grade cardiac stimulant for a defense contract sub-vendor. They deliberately changed the formulations to see how quickly the pediatric human heart would collapse under extreme vascular stress."
David dropped his mug onto the concrete floor. It shattered into pieces. "They were using sick children as human guinea pigs for a military contract?"
"They knew the kids were going to die," Julian said, his voice breaking. "Look at this memorandum signed by Marcus Kane himself: 'Subject attrition rate expected at 85%. Financial reserves allocated for family non-disclosure buyouts.' They calculated the price of our children’s lives before the first pill was ever manufactured."
I stared at Marcus Kane’s digital signature on the screen. The text was black, clear, and unfeeling.
Subject attrition rate. That was what Emma was to them. A number on a ledger.
"Can we send this to the Department of Justice?" David asked desperately. "The FBI? The media?"
"If we just email this to the press, Aegis’s legal network will file emergency gag orders within ten minutes," Julian said, shaking his head. "They’ll claim the data was stolen by a disgruntled ex-employee and corrupted with malicious code. No major news outlet will air it without primary verification from an internal witness."
"We have an internal witness," I said quietly.
Julian and David both looked at me.
"Callista," I said.
"Callista is in county jail, Lia," David said bitterly. "And as Julian said, Kane is probably already planning to have her killed in her cell."
"Then we have to get to her first," I said. "We have to make her see that Aegis isn't going to save her, pay her legal fees, or protect her son Brody. They are going to erase her. And the only way she survives is if she stands up in court and turns state's evidence."
"She hates you, Lia," David warned. "She betrayed you and Emma for money."
"She doesn't hate me," I said, looking down at the screen. "She loves herself. And right now, helping us is the only way she stays alive."
I turned to Julian. "How fast can you get me a secure visitor pass into the county detention center?"
May you like
Julian looked at his screen, then looked back at me with a slow, grim smile.
"Give me two hours," Julian said. "I still have the administrative credentials for the sheriff’s department vendor portal. You’re going in as a court-appointed paralegal."
