Chapter 292
Chapter 292
Margaret needed to draw a fake treasure map, leading the massive beast along her designed route straight into the trap.
Antarctica, "Blackstone" temporary camp.
The tech team leader burst into the command center. "Mr. Neville! There's another encrypted layer on the USB drive—we cracked it!"
Richard turned to the screen.
What they'd decrypted wasn't future technology, but business documents.
Banora's "Son of Poseidon" shipping company's procurement list: twelve thousand short tons of specialized marine steel.
Belmont Isles' "Noah Investment" tender documents: offshore drilling platform renovation project.
A memo mentioning project codename: 【Ark】.
Also decrypted were encrypted satellite coordinates and dates. The coordinates were marked on nautical charts—red dots scattered across international waters in the Pacific, slowly moving like a floating city.
Richard's breath caught.
"The Shadow's" target wasn't networks or technology.
They were building a mobile kingdom independent of any sovereignty.
A technological ark.
The blueprints on the USB weren't fantasy—they were construction manuals for "Ark."
This was no longer business competition or cyber warfare. This was a plan to overturn the world order.
"How long to contact the nearest military base?" Richard asked his assistant.
"Mr. Neville, deploying military force in international waters would cause diplomatic incidents..."
"I'm asking about our own people. How long for a ship to reach those coordinates?"
He had to see this "Ark" with his own eyes.
His assistant immediately began calculations.
Richard grabbed the satellite phone and dialed Margaret directly.
The call connected instantly.
"The mole has been turned." Margaret's voice was crisp and efficient. "Currently preparing new architecture diagrams for 'The Shadow,' embedded with thirty-seven logic bombs."
"Good." Richard studied the red dots on the nautical chart. "I have new intel."
He paused, his tone grave.
"Our enemy isn't a ghost."
"They've built a Noah's Ark at sea."
......
The "Starlink" beta test triggered a global business storm.
Margaret New Energy Group's stock price shattered all prediction limits, with orders from various countries flooding in like snowflakes. The name Margaret Kennedy echoed throughout tech and financial circles.
"European Telecommunications Union's final contract, with generous terms."
"Asian sovereign fund investment proposal."
"Celestria Defense Department's high-value procurement for encrypted channels."
The assistant's reports carried excitement.
Margaret leaned back in her chair, gazing out at the high-rises through the window, her expression unmoved. Business victory was expected. She was thinking about the word Richard had sent—"Ark."
A mobile tech kingdom on the high seas.
More troublesome than any competitor, and more intriguing.
After processing the seventeenth cross-border agreement, her private terminal chimed softly.
A pure black envelope icon hovered in the center of the screen.
Margaret's expression shifted sharply.
Only "The Shadow's" leader, "Night King," could penetrate her firewall like this.
She physically disconnected the terminal from the network, connected it to an isolated system, then clicked the black envelope.
A video began playing.
A futuristic laboratory. Pure white walls, hovering robotic arms, pale blue holographic data streams.
The camera moved, focusing on a transparent life-support pod in the center.
Inside lay a woman with closed eyes, connected to countless tubes, her face serene.
Margaret's breathing stopped.
Her fingertips traced the screen.
That face was her own reflection.
The video lasted thirty seconds.
In the final second, a synthesized electronic voice spoke:
"Family."
The video ended, the envelope icon collapsed into invalid data, and vanished completely.
Margaret sat motionless.
She was an abandoned orphan with no memories of parents. She thought she was alone in the world.
Now, "The Shadow" told her in the cruelest way possible: you're not.
Clone? Twin? Blood relative?
She tried to retrieve cached data, finding that all traces had been completely erased.
"Ms. Kennedy?" The tech director asked carefully from the doorway.
Margaret didn't turn around.
"If something can be seen but not touched, with no way to prove it existed, is it real or fake?"
The tech director was stunned. "Schrödinger's cat?"
Margaret stood and walked out of the data center. Employees greeted her with joy-filled faces.
She nodded in response, expression cold, quickening her pace.
She returned to her office and locked the door.
Outside, the world bustled with prosperity. Margaret New Energy Group's logo gleamed in the sunlight.
Yet she felt more isolated than ever.
"The Shadow" had struck her only vulnerability. They hadn't attacked "Starlink" or threatened the company, but directly assaulted her very "existence."
She walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, looking at her reflection in the glass.
That familiar face bore an unnoticed confusion.
"Family..."
She whispered the word.
This most absent word from her life now felt like a poisoned dagger offered by her enemy.
She pulled out her personal phone, her finger hovering over Richard's name for a long moment.
She wanted to tell him this heavy secret.
Finally, she put the phone down.
No.
This was her business.
Richard had his "Ark" to deal with. And the "Margaret" in the life-support pod was her war alone.
She couldn't let him be distracted.
Margaret sat back at her desk, the confusion in her eyes gradually replaced by cold steel.
Fear and anger were useless.
She needed answers.
She opened an encrypted document containing clues about her origins collected over the years: old orphanage photos, vague adoption records, fragmentary genetic analysis reports. Previously, these were like scattered sand, unable to form a complete picture.
But now, the laboratory in the video and that woman became key puzzle pieces.
"Night King..."
Margaret typed the name on her keyboard.
'You think this is my weakness?'
'No.'
'You've given me a reason to find you and destroy you.'
She pulled up Joe's contact information.
"Initiate 'Dead Leaf' protocol. I want all information from 'The Shadow' regarding biological engineering and genetic projects. At any cost."
Since you want to play the "family" game.
I'll play along.
......
Deep in the Pacific, a modified research vessel cut through the waves. The hull was dark gray, appearing as a shadow from satellite view.
Richard stood on the bridge, his attention split between two screens: the left showed nautical charts with "Ark" coordinates, the right displayed a close-up of the woman in the life-support pod.
"Twenty-two years ago, Sunrise City, Eden Biological Gene Institute." His assistant reported. "A fire destroyed all records, the institute disbanded, and personnel went missing."
Typical cover-up tactics.
"Who was the legal representative?"
"George Kennedy. Also went missing after the fire."
Richard's fingers tapped the control panel lightly. Margaret's adoptive father was also named Kennedy—not a coincidence.
"Keep digging. Employee roster, janitors, security guards—leave no one out. Check their relatives, bank records, and immigration records. Turn over every stone to find someone alive."
He stared at the screen showing a face identical to Margaret's, his brow furrowed. The secret behind "The Shadow's" bait might be more troublesome than "Ark."
This was no longer just an enemy—this was Margaret's "family business."
He couldn't stand by and watch.