CHAPTER 5 — The Man Who Should Have Stayed Dead
CHAPTER 5 — The Man Who Should Have Stayed Dead
The first gunshot shattered the front windows.
Crystal exploded across the marble floor.
Guests who had not yet left the estate screamed and dove beneath tables as Mercer security rushed toward the entrance.
Jonathan instinctively stepped in front of his mother.
"Get down!"
Evelyn Mercer stared at him in disbelief.
"You still protect me?"
"You can explain your secrets later."
Another burst of gunfire echoed outside.
"Right now, we survive."
Marcus Hale burst into the dining room, an earpiece pressed to one ear.
"They're not trying to get inside."
Jonathan frowned.
"What?"
"They're trying to force us out."
Almost on cue, thick black smoke began curling through the grand foyer.
One of the guards shouted from the hallway.
"They've started a fire!"
Within seconds, the mansion's fire suppression system activated, spraying water from the ceiling.
Jonathan grabbed his mother's arm.
"The east exit."
Marcus led them through a service corridor while security agents returned fire outside.
As they reached the underground garage, Jonathan noticed something strange.
The attackers were retreating.
Not because they had been defeated.
Because they had accomplished exactly what they came for.
Ten minutes later, firefighters surrounded the estate.
The fire had been contained.
Damage was surprisingly limited.
Too limited.
Marcus walked toward Jonathan carrying a tablet.
"They stole something."
"What?"
"The archive room."
Jonathan frowned.
"My father's study?"
Marcus nodded.
"They ignored jewelry."
"They ignored artwork."
"They ignored the safe."
"They went straight for your father's private records."
Jonathan looked toward the smoke-covered mansion.
"They knew exactly where to go."
An hour later, security footage confirmed it.
Five masked individuals entered through the rear entrance.
One of them walked directly to an old filing cabinet hidden behind a bookshelf.
No hesitation.
No searching.
As though he had been there before.
He removed one single file.
Nothing else.
The folder label appeared briefly on camera.
MARY HART
Jonathan's pulse quickened.
"They came for her."
Marcus nodded.
"Which means someone believes those files still matter."
Back at Mercer Global headquarters, Jonathan and Evelyn sat alone in the executive conference room.
For the first time in his life, Jonathan saw uncertainty in his mother's eyes.
"I want the truth."
Evelyn stared at the rain outside.
"Twelve years ago your father was investigating illegal pharmaceutical testing."
Jonathan froze.
"Our company?"
"No."
"A partner company."
"They were falsifying clinical trial data."
Jonathan leaned forward.
"Mary Hart knew?"
Evelyn nodded.
"She worked as a laboratory technician."
"She discovered children were being given experimental medication without proper consent."
Jonathan's face hardened.
"And she reported it."
"She tried."
Evelyn's voice broke for the first time.
"Before she could testify... she became violently ill."
Jonathan remembered Lila's words.
"My mom got sick."
Not an illness.
Poison.
"Who did it?"
Evelyn answered quietly.
"A man named Victor Kane."
Jonathan searched his memory.
The name meant nothing.
"He owned Kane Biologics."
"He disappeared before federal investigators could arrest him."
"Everyone believed he died in a boating accident."
Marcus suddenly looked up from his laptop.
"Sir..."
"I don't think he died."
Jonathan turned.
Marcus enlarged a recent surveillance photograph recovered from the attack.
The image was blurry.
One attacker had briefly removed his mask.
Facial recognition searched thousands of records.
Match found.
Victor Kane
Probability:
97.8%
Jonathan stared at the screen.
"Twelve years..."
Marcus nodded.
"He was alive the entire time."
Meanwhile...
Twenty miles away inside an abandoned pharmaceutical warehouse...
Victor Kane watched news coverage of the attack.
He was older now.
Gray-haired.
His face scarred along one side.
But his eyes remained cold.
A younger man entered.
"We have the Mercer file."
Victor opened the stolen folder.
Inside were photographs.
Medical reports.
Witness statements.
Then...
A birth certificate.
Victor smiled.
"So Evelyn kept it after all."
The younger man looked confused.
"What is it?"
May you like
Victor held up the document.
"The reason Jonathan Mercer will soon belong to me."
