Chapter 2 - The Road Without Cameras
Audrey did not return to the penthouse.
She did not contact Julian.
She left the laboratory grounds through an equipment entrance while firefighters fought the blaze on the opposite side of the building.
Her first call was to Miriam Cole, the Vale family’s private attorney.
Miriam answered after one ring.
“Where are you?”
“Near the laboratory.”
“Are you alone?”
Audrey looked behind her.
A black sedan had pulled away from the curb.
“I don’t know.”
“Do not go home. Do not use your credit cards. Bring me anything Adrian sent you.”
Audrey drove south.
The black sedan followed.
At the next intersection, she turned west.
The sedan turned west.
Miriam gave her the address of a parking garage beneath an abandoned courthouse undergoing renovation. Audrey entered through a service ramp and stopped beside a concrete column.
Miriam was waiting in an older blue station wagon.
“Leave your car and phone,” she said.
Audrey climbed into the passenger seat.
“My brother is missing.”
“I know.”
“I heard Julian’s voice ordering the doors locked.”
“Did you see him give the order?”
“No.”
“Then we do not know who gave it.”
“I saw him with Chloe.”
Miriam closed her eyes briefly.
“That may be connected.”
Audrey placed Adrian’s transferred authorization on the dashboard.
Miriam studied Julian’s signature.
“This is authentic,” she said.
“I know.”
“No. I mean the encryption key is authentic. That does not prove Julian authorized it.”
“Who else could use his key?”
“Someone with access to the Cross Meridian security system.”
“His father.”
“Or Chloe.”
Audrey looked at the courthouse wall.
“I’m pregnant.”
Miriam’s hands tightened around the steering wheel.
“Does Julian know?”
“No.”
“Does Victor?”
“I think he suspects.”
Miriam started the engine immediately.
They switched vehicles twice before leaving Manhattan.
By sunrise, Audrey was traveling north inside a delivery van owned by one of Miriam’s former clients. The driver had been told she was a protected witness.
Audrey sat on a folded blanket in the cargo area, staring at the cuff-link box.
Her phone and car remained inside the courthouse garage.
Miriam’s investigators later learned that both had been located less than an hour after Audrey left them.
The searches began that morning.
Julian called every hospital within two hundred miles.
Cross Meridian security teams reviewed traffic footage.
Victor publicly claimed that Audrey had stolen confidential research and disappeared after the laboratory fire.
By noon, the story was on every financial news channel.
Audrey Vale Cross, heir to Vale Advanced Research, was suspected of corporate theft.
Julian appeared before the cameras that evening.
Audrey watched from a roadside motel in Vermont.
His face was exhausted.
“My wife is missing,” he said. “Her safety is my only concern. Anyone with information should contact the authorities.”
A reporter asked whether Audrey had caused the laboratory fire.
Julian’s expression hardened.
“No.”
“Do you believe she stole the Orion research?”
“No.”
“Did she leave because of your relationship with Chloe Mercer?”
Julian looked directly into the camera.
“There was no relationship.”
Audrey switched off the television.
Miriam sat beside the window, reviewing encrypted messages.
“His father froze your accounts,” she said.
“Julian allowed it.”
“The order came from the Cross family office.”
“Which belongs to Julian.”
“Legally, yes. Operationally, Victor controls it.”
Audrey looked at her wedding ring.
“What about Adrian?”
“No body has been recovered.”
“Then he could be alive.”
“He could.”
Miriam did not sound convinced.
A message arrived on Adrian’s emergency account just before midnight.
It contained no text.
Only an audio file.
Audrey pressed play.
At first, she heard alarms and footsteps.
Then Adrian’s voice.
“Someone copied Julian’s authorization key. Orion was never the target. The patient index is the target.”
A door slammed.
Adrian continued more quietly.
“If anything happens to me, find Project Gemini.”
The recording ended with the sound of breaking glass.
Miriam replayed it.
“Have you heard of Project Gemini?”
“No.”
“Could it be connected to Orion?”
“Adrian would have told me.”
“Maybe he was trying to.”
Audrey placed both hands over her stomach.
The patient index.
Project Gemini.
Two words for two unborn children.
The motel telephone rang.
Neither woman moved.
It rang again.
Miriam answered without speaking.
A man’s voice came through the receiver.
“Mrs. Cross should return to New York before she makes this worse.”
Miriam disconnected the call.
Audrey stared at her.
“How did they find us?”
Miriam crossed the room and pulled back the curtain.
The parking lot was empty.
“They didn’t call the room,” she said.
“What?”
“This phone has not been connected to the motel switchboard since the renovation.”
The telephone rang again.
This time Audrey answered.
May you like
Victor Cross spoke softly.
“Congratulations on the twins.”
