Chapter 37 - The Ghost Message
|
Madison frowned, setting her coffee cup down on the wooden table.
She tapped the encrypted message. The screen flickered black before displaying a high-resolution photograph.
Her blood ran cold instantly.
The photograph showed a quiet, sunlit street in Rome. Standing outside a small sidewalk café was Director Vance, holding a newspaper. Sitting at the table right beside him, wearing a dark suit and dark sunglasses, was a man holding a sleek black leather briefcase.
Taped to the briefcase in the photo was a small, familiar symbol—a stylized brass gear.
The exact same design as the second key from the vault.
Beneath the photograph was a single line of text:
Did you really think Victor Sterling was the head of the network, Commander? Victor was just the banker.
Madison felt the breath catch in her throat. She looked down at the photo again, zooming in on the face of the man sitting next to Vance.
On the man's right hand was a heavy gold signet ring bearing an engraving of an octopus wrapping its tentacles around a globe.
The emblem of The Council of Five—a legendary shadow cabal that her grandfather had dismissed as a myth thirty years ago.
Her phone chimed a second time. Another text message appeared from the same unknown sender:
May you like
The four keys you found in Geneva opened the local vault. But there are four more vaults scattered across Tokyo, London, Johannesburg, and Sao Paulo.
And Director Vance just sold them the master key.
