Chapter 3 - The Father's Blueprint
I carried Olivia into the secure briefing room behind the front counter, laying her gently across the long wooden conference table. Emma followed closely, refusing to let go of her sister’s trembling hand.
I needed to know who Marcus Vance really was. I accessed the local off-line precinct cache on a standalone terminal that wasn't tied into the hijacked central network switch.
Marcus Vance wasn't just a registered pharmacist or an ordinary suspect. He was a former chief systems architect for Aethelgard Bio-Tech—a defense contractor specializing in automated security management and experimental neuro-pharmaceutical delivery platforms. He was the very engineer who had drafted the security schematics for this precinct during the county retrofit three years ago. He knew every relay, every duct, and every fail-safe built into these walls because he had drawn them himself.
I looked at the code printed on the evidence bag containing the oral syringe: 884-Delta.
I pulled open the precinct emergency medical kit and pulled out a standard diagnostic kit. Olivia's heart rate was dangerously elevated, spiking past one hundred and sixty beats per minute, while her blood pressure was plummeting.
“Emma,” I whispered, kneeling beside her. “I need you to tell me everything about today. What happened before you ran away?”
Emma swallowed hard, her eyes wide under the dim amber emergency lights. “Daddy has a room in the basement with big glass jars and screens. He was talking to someone on his laptop. He was angry. He said they were going to take his research away.”
“What did he do then?”
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“He brought out two blue tubes,” Emma said, her voice trembling. “He said we had to take our medicine so we would be safe if the bad people came. He made Olivia take hers first. I told him I needed to use the bathroom, and I hid my tube in my shoe. When he turned around to look for me, I grabbed Olivia’s hand and ran out the back door into the rain.”
The realization hit me with terrifying clarity. Marcus Vance hadn't just poisoned his daughter out of malice; he had inoculated or modified them with a proprietary chemical compound, using his own children as living vaults for stolen intellectual property or experimental trials—and Olivia's young body was rejecting the formulation.
