Chapter 18 - THE BLOOD THEY STOLE
Maya’s blood had been drawn twice.
The first time after the dizzy spell.
The second during routine follow-up.
Luca had authorized both.
That knowledge made him feel complicit.
The samples went through the estate medical system.
Celia handled one.
A nurse named Rebecca handled the other.
Rebecca had disappeared during the blackout.
Her personnel file was fake.
Harris traced the laboratory shipments.
Maya’s blood never reached the hospital Luca believed had tested it.
Instead, both samples went to a private research company.
Vale Neurogenetics.
Luca stared.
“He used my daughter.”
Aiden read the records.
“Possibly.”
“What does possibly mean?”
“We don’t know what he did with the samples.”
“He did not send them to a private genetics lab for decoration.”
“No.”
Aiden examined encrypted files from Anna’s box.
“There are references to hereditary metabolic response.”
“English.”
“Vale thought the way your body responded to VR-17 might have a genetic component.”
Luca looked toward Maya.
She was at school under guard.
He had insisted she attend.
Elena had agreed reluctantly.
Normal.
Even while the walls collapsed.
“So he tested Maya.”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
“Whether she carries markers linked to your unusually strong nerve preservation.”
“And Nicholas?”
“Damian’s son shares some Costello genetics.”
“Less direct.”
“Yes.”
“Vale compared them.”
“Probably.”
Luca felt nauseated.
“What would he do with that?”
Aiden hesitated.
“Research.”
“On people?”
“Vale does not appear constrained by ordinary ethics.”
“That is a polite way to say monster.”
“Yes.”
The rehabilitation data showed something else.
Someone had altered Luca’s taper schedule after Maya’s first blood draw.
Small changes.
Enough to increase nerve response.
“Vale?”
“Likely.”
“Why?”
“To test whether your recovery correlated with the genetic data.”
Luca stared at his legs.
His hope had been manipulated too.
The movement Maya noticed was real.
The recovery was real.
But Vale had turned even that into an experiment.
Luca felt violated in a way he had not known was possible.
Elena entered.
“What did you find?”
He wanted to hide it.
Then remembered his promise.
He told her.
Every part.
Elena listened.
Her face became still.
“Did they do anything to Maya?”
“We have no evidence beyond blood samples.”
“Is she sick?”
“No.”
“Could she become sick?”
“Aiden says no indication.”
Elena looked at him.
“You believe him?”
“Yes.”
The speed of the answer mattered.
There were still people Luca trusted.
Few.
But not zero.
Elena sat.
“If Vale comes near her again, I will kill him.”
Luca raised an eyebrow.
“That was unexpectedly Costello of you.”
“Do not encourage me.”
He almost smiled.
Damian and Nicholas arrived that evening.
Their first entrance into the estate together became strangely quiet.
Maya stood near the staircase.
Tommy beside her.
Luca in the foyer.
Elena behind them.
Nicholas stopped.
He looked at Luca.
Then the wheelchair.
Then Maya.
He had seen photographs.
Reality was different.
“So you’re Luca.”
“Yes.”
Nicholas looked at Maya.
“And she’s the kid.”
Maya frowned.
“I have a name.”
Nicholas blinked.
“Maya.”
“Yes.”
“Sorry.”
Tommy whispered.
“She does that.”
Maya elbowed him.
Damian almost smiled.
Nicholas looked at Damian.
Then Luca.
The resemblance between the brothers made the boy uncomfortable.
“You didn’t know either?”
Nicholas asked Luca.
“No.”
“About me?”
“No.”
“About her?”
“No.”
Nicholas looked toward Maya again.
“Everybody in this family loses children.”
No one had a response.
Maya stepped closer.
“You’re my cousin.”
Nicholas stared.
“I guess.”
“Cool.”
Nicholas almost laughed.
“That’s it?”
“What else?”
“I don’t know.”
Maya shrugged.
“Tommy says cousins are just siblings who live somewhere else.”
Tommy frowned.
“I never said that.”
“You said something like that.”
“No.”
Nicholas smiled despite himself.
The first crack in his armor.
Damian saw it.
So did Luca.
Nicholas handed over everything he had.
Vale’s messages.
Training files.
Medical results.
A map of hidden Bellweather facilities.
One location stood out.
A private laboratory beneath an old pharmaceutical plant outside Chicago.
Vale’s primary site.
Harris contacted federal investigators.
For the first time, Luca did not try to control the operation.
He sat in the briefing room while agents planned the raid.
That felt strange.
Power moving without his permission.
Once, it would have enraged him.
Now it felt almost like relief.
Pierce had been transferred into federal custody after investigators found financial evidence tying him to Bellweather fraud.
He still refused to identify all partners.
Teresa remained under protection.
Caruso agreed to testify.
Damian agreed too.
That decision stunned Luca.
“You know what that means.”
Damian nodded.
“Charges.”
“Yes.”
“For you too.”
“I know.”
Luca stared.
Damian continued.
“I hid what Father did.”
“I signed things I should not have signed.”
“I benefited.”
“I am not going to stand in front of Nicholas and pretend accountability is something only other people owe.”
Luca looked at his brother.
For the first time in years, he felt proud of him.
That made forgiveness more complicated.
The federal raid began at 4:30 in the morning.
Vale’s laboratory appeared abandoned.
Then thermal imaging found a lower level.
Agents entered.
Medical rooms.
Servers.
Blood storage.
Patient files.
No Vale.
But the evidence was massive.
Luca’s records filled twelve cabinets.
Maya’s occupied one folder.
Nicholas’s occupied three.
Teresa’s filled two drawers.
Other names appeared.
Dozens.
Some unknown.
Some powerful.
Some dead.
Vale had spent decades collecting information on bodies and using it as leverage.
Then agents found the Transition room.
A hospital bed.
Restraints.
Neural equipment.
Cameras.
A screen labeled L.C. RECOVERY PROTOCOL.
Aiden stared at the remote feed.
“What was he planning?”
No one knew.
Then an agent opened a refrigerator.
Inside were prepared doses.
Each labeled with dates.
The last scheduled dose was Friday.
Tomorrow.
Luca felt cold.
“He planned to keep dosing me.”
“Yes.”
“Then why accelerate recovery?”
Aiden looked at the protocol.
“To prepare you for something.”
“What?”
He scrolled.
Then stopped.
At the bottom was a procedure.
SPINAL STIMULATION TRIAL — SUBJECT L.C.
Vale intended to perform an invasive experimental procedure on Luca.
Friday.
The day Luca had promised Maya he would attend her planets presentation.
“He was planning to take me.”
Elena whispered.
“During withdrawal instability.”
Aiden nodded.
“You would be medically vulnerable.”
Harris looked at the security map.
“Which means he expected access to the estate.”
Everyone became still.
Vale had planned a procedure.
He had doses ready.
He knew Luca’s schedule.
He expected to reach him.
That meant someone inside the estate still worked for him.
They reviewed every staff member again.
Nothing.
Then Nicholas looked at the supply records.
“These are wrong.”
“What?”
Luca asked.
“The delivery code.”
“How?”
“Vale never uses VNG for medical shipments.”
“What does he use?”
“B17.”
Harris searched the estate logs.
B17 appeared.
Once.
A delivery scheduled for Friday morning.
Planet project day.
School auditorium.
Supplier.
Brighton Educational Services.
Elena stood.
“No.”
Harris traced the shipment.
The company provided display equipment to Maya’s school.
Luca stared at the clock.
Vale had never intended to enter the estate.
He intended to take Luca where he had promised to go.
May you like
Maya’s school.
And the delivery truck was already parked behind the auditorium.
