My fingers fly across the keys. The code reflects in my eyes, a stream of green and white. I don’t just read the data; I feel it. It has a texture, a rhythm.
Meridian Pharmaceuticals.
Vanguard Defense Systems.
Nexus BioTech.
Stratton Financial.
TerraCore Energy.
Five corporations. Different industries. Pharma, Defense, Bio, Finance, Energy. On the surface, they are competitors or unrelated entities.
But the data whispers a different story.
I pull up the ownership structures. Shell companies nested inside shell companies like Russian dolls. I strip them away, layer by layer.
Click.
There. Buried deep in the bedrock of the filings.
Nexus Holdings.
My pulse quickens. The screen blurs as I scroll faster.
I pull up every risk assessment I’ve ever flagged. Every whistleblower case that went dead. Every regulatory investigation that mysteriously evaporated.
The pattern emerges like a photograph developing in a darkroom. Sharp. High-contrast. Undeniable.
Phoenix isn’t a random assassin. It’s a corporate immune system systematically eliminating oversight personnel, whistleblowers, regulators, and anyone who threatens the profit margins of these five companies.
Victor questioned Meridian’s drug trials.Dead.
Morrison investigated Vanguard’s defense contracts.Dead.
The EPA inspector who flagged TerraCore’s violations.“Fatal heart attack”at forty-two.
The SEC analyst who discovered Stratton’s fraud.“Suicide”three weeks ago.
The probability of coincidence is mathematically impossible. Zero.
I dig deeper into Nexus Holdings. Offshore accounts in the Caymans. A corporate structure designed to be a labyrinth.
But labyrinths have architects.
Buried in the footnotes of an SEC filing, I find a name.
Alexander Reed.
Strategic Operations Director.
A chill slides down my spine, colder than the factory air.
I’ve heard that name. Recently.
My mind rewinds through the last forty-eight hours. The parking garage. The rooftop. The safe house.
No. Before that. Victor’s evidence drive.
