Chapter 3 - The Doctor's Discovery
As soon as Julian’s black town car disappeared beyond the iron gates, Silas summoned Dr. Aris. The underground physician arrived through the service entrance, a man who had stitched up bullet wounds and extracted shrapnel without ever asking a single question.
Inside the nursery, the lavender walls seemed to glow under the soft morning light. Dr. Aris gently examined the baby, checking her vitals, her reflexes, and the smudged hospital bracelet on her ankle. Silas stood by the window, his arms crossed, his entire body coiled tight with tension.
"She’s perfectly healthy, Silas," Dr. Aris finally said, packing away his stethoscope. "A little underweight, perhaps, and exposed to the cold, but resilient. I’d place her at exactly six months old."
Six months. Clara had been gone for two years. The math meant Clara had survived the crash, remained hidden, and carried their child in absolute secrecy while Silas was tearing the city apart looking for her body.
"There's something else," Dr. Aris murmured, lifting the woolen blanket the baby had been wrapped in. "When I was checking the fabric for dampness, I felt a hard ridge sewn into the hem."
Silas crossed the room in two strides. He took the heavy wool blanket, his fingers expertly tracing the thick seam at the bottom. There was a rigid, rectangular shape hidden beneath the threads. With a swift motion, Silas produced a silver pocket knife and sliced the seam open.
A small, black encrypted USB drive fell into his palm.
Dante, standing guard at the door, immediately pulled a secure, offline laptop from a briefcase. "Give it to me, Boss. If it's a trap, the malware won't breach our main servers."
Silas handed over the drive, his heart hammering violently against his ribs. Dante inserted it. The screen flashed black, then prompted a password.
Silas didn't even hesitate. He leaned over Dante's shoulder and typed a single word: Crescent.
May you like
The drive unlocked. There was only one file on it. An audio recording. Silas clicked play, and the sound of static filled the lavender room, followed by a voice that instantly brought the syndicate boss to his knees.
"Silas... if you are hearing this, it means I am out of time."
