Chapter 6 - The Bait and the Blueprint
The plan was insane, reckless, and terrifyingly dangerous—which meant it was the only option we had.
According to the encrypted metadata extracted from Lily’s medical file, Apex Life Sciences was scheduled to conduct their final phase-one extraction cycle at their primary subterranean facility near Gold Hill, Colorado, at midnight.
If we waited for standard federal warrants to wind their way through the bureaucratic courts, the facility would be scrubbed clean, the children relocated, and my sister Sarah would likely vanish forever.
Detective Ross set up a mobile command van parked three blocks from my house in a quiet Denver suburb. He handed me a secure, encrypted satellite burner phone and a small, tactical audio-visual relay button disguised as a jacket lapel pin.
“You’re going to call Julian Vance using the burner phone,” Ross instructed, pointing to a tactical map spread across the hood of an unmarked cruiser. “You’re going to tell him you have the full extraction data log downloaded from Lily’s medical profile, and you’re willing to trade it for Sarah’s immediate release and safe return.”
“And if he says no?”
“He won't say no,” Ross replied with absolute certainty. “That data log represents three years of illegal human trials. If it leaks to the federal securities commission or the press, their stock plummets to zero and their board members go to federal prison for the rest of their lives. They’ll take the meeting.”
“Where?”
“An abandoned timber processing yard off Route 7, five miles north of Boulder, right near the entrance to their primary underground access tunnel,” Ross said, tapping the map with a black marker. “My tactical team will be surrounding the perimeter in full stealth gear. The moment Vance hands Sarah over, our strike team moves in to secure the compound and arrest everyone on-site.”
May you like
I took a deep, steadying breath, feeling the cold mountain air fill my lungs. I thought of Emma sleeping safely at my neighbor’s house, and I thought of little Lily resting in the hospital room, finally free of pain.
“Let’s make the call,” I said.
