Chapter 12 - THE BOMB WAS NEVER IN MY CAR
Everyone moved too fast.
Sadi didn’t.
“Stop.”
Frankie already had her twenty feet away.
“Move.”
“No.”
Desmond shouted from the doorway:
“Get her inside!”
Sadi fought Frankie’s grip.
“The device says armed. That doesn’t mean explosive.”
Frankie ignored her.
Bomb squad came.
Estate evacuated.
Forty-three minutes later, the truth arrived.
No bomb.
The AEGIS device connected to her ignition.
Remote engine kill.
Nothing more.
A threat.
A demonstration.
Whoever installed it wanted them to believe they could reach Sadi too.
Desmond was furious.
Not cinematic fury.
Worse.
Controlled.
“I’m moving you.”
“No.”
“To a secure location.”
“No.”
“Sadi.”
“You do not get to relocate me like furniture.”
“Someone targeted your car.”
“They targeted your fear.”
He stopped.
She continued:
“If I disappear into one of your safe houses, whoever did this proves they can rearrange your life.”
Desmond stared at her.
Then looked away.
She was right.
He hated it.
Good.
The device itself gave them something useful.
Serial number.
Manufactured five years earlier.
Registered to Catherine Gallagher’s original AEGIS demonstration batch.
One of six modules.
Luis installed one in Patrick’s sedan.
Where were the other five?
Records showed:
Two destroyed.
One retained by Meridian.
One given to Gallagher research.
Two missing.
Sadi’s device was one missing module.
Someone possessed Catherine’s old inventory.
Then Ellen Walsh remembered a storage box Catherine left after death.
Patrick never collected it.
Why?
He did not know it existed.
Inside were two modules.
Except when they opened the box—
Empty.
Someone had taken them.
Access log to Ellen’s building:
Dr. Alan Mercer.
Four months earlier.
Mercer had been Catherine’s physician during cancer treatment.
He knew Ellen.
He had delivered medical records after Catherine died.
Maybe he discovered the box.
Now evidence tightened.
Mercer tampered medication.
Witnessed capacity papers.
Accessed Catherine’s stored modules.
But did he bomb the car?
They obtained his financial records through legal process after law enforcement opened an investigation.
Payments from Meridian.
Consulting fees.
Then one extraordinary transfer:
$2 million.
Three days after Desmond’s bombing.
Graham Vale to Mercer Clinical Services.
Sadi whispered:
“There.”
Desmond’s face went cold.
Then the payment memo:
PROJECT CONTINUITY.
Not proof of murder.
Enough for subpoenas.
Mercer disappeared before investigators reached his office.
His passport flagged.
Car found at a private airfield.
No Mercer.
Then Patrick called Sadi.
Not Desmond.
Her.
“Why are you calling me?”
“Because he’ll think I’m lying.”
“Probably.”
“Tell Desmond Mercer didn’t plant the bomb.”
“How do you know?”
“I did.”
Sadi stopped breathing.
Patrick continued:
“Not the bomb itself.”
“Explain.”
“I ordered the AEGIS module activated.”
Her skin went cold.
“On your own car?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to prove the vulnerability before the Meridian acquisition.”
Catherine’s unfinished plan.
Patrick had discovered it.
He wanted to recreate her demonstration.
Disable his own vehicle remotely.
Scare the board.
Then use the incident to justify buying Meridian and internalizing the technology.
But someone changed the remote command.
Engine disable became overload.
A demonstration became explosion.
Patrick whispered:
“I caused it.”
“No.”
Sadi’s voice sharpened.
“You started something reckless.”
Silence.
“Who changed the command?”
“I think Mercer.”
“Why?”
“Because Graham Vale promised him control of Gallagher medical contracts after I took over.”
Sadi felt sick.
Patrick had been manipulated too.
Then he said:
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Mercer told me Desmond would survive.”
“How could he know?”
“He didn’t.”
Then Patrick’s voice broke.
“He said if Desmond lived, paralysis would make the transfer easier.”
Sadi closed her eyes.
Patrick had heard that.
And continued working with him anyway.
Before she could respond, Desmond entered.
He had heard enough.
Patrick whispered through the phone:
“Tell my brother I’m sorry.”
Desmond took the phone.
“No.”
Patrick went silent.
“You tell me yourself.”
Then the call disconnected.
Location trace:
May you like
Gallagher Freight’s abandoned South Dock facility.
The place where Michael Callaway survived the 2011 explosion.
