I turned my head. “What was it?”
Marcus Vance looked out through the panoramic windows toward the Rocky Mountains rising sharp and purple against the western sky:
“Apex Health Logistics isn’t a pharmaceutical client, Sebastian.”
“Apex is the primary covert medical extraction and sovereign asset recovery wing of the Department of Defense’s Special Operations Logistics Command.”
“Eleanor was the founder.”
“And that pitch deck you spent all night polishing… was your technical entrance examination.”
Marcus tapped the titanium key on the table:
“She has an operational briefing for you at two o’clock.”
“And she told me to tell you…”
A heavy, five-second silence hung in the air:
“…that Carter Holbrook wasn’t working alone.”
CHAPTER 9: PROLOGUE TO PART 3: THE CIPHER IN THE VAULT
The private elevator at the end of the executive executive suite did not chime.
It gave a low, seismic, subterranean shudder that rattled the brass drafting compass resting on my desk:
