Chapter 88: The Saint's Legacy

 

Paris, France. Père Lachaise Cemetery.Two Days Later. Rainy Afternoon.

The sky was the color of a bruised plum. Rain fell softly on the ancient tombstones. There were only four mourners standing around a freshly dug grave in the unmarked section. Sebastian, Harper, Jack, and Dr. Braun.

Harper placed a single white lily on the muddy earth. "She hated lilies," Harper whispered, a sad smile touching her lips. "She said they smelled like funerals." "But it's the only flower I could find."

Sebastian stood behind her, holding a black umbrella. He wasn't wearing armor. He wasn't holding a cane. He was wearing a simple black suit. He looked thinner, sharper. The Resonance had purged the active alien virus from his system. The "superpowers"—the night vision, the hydraulic strength—were gone. He was human again. Just a man with a genius brain and a body scarred by a thousand battles.

"She saved us," Sebastian said quietly. "She was the strongest of us all."

Jack spat on the ground (a sign of respect in his book). "She was a tough old bird. Saved my ass in the tunnel."

Dr. Braun checked his watch nervously. "We should go. The police are still looking for the 'terrorists' who blew up the Catacombs."

---

[The Safehouse]

Montmartre. A Rented Artist's Loft.8:00 PM.

The loft was filled with the smell of wet wool and cheap coffee. They were packing. The mission in France was over.

Harper sat by the window, watching the rain wash over the lights of Paris. On her lap was Catherine’s Bible. It was old, leather-bound, with pages worn thin by decades of turning.

"Why did she keep this?" Harper murmured. "Mom wasn't religious. She believed in science."

"Maybe it was comfort," Braun suggested, bandaging Sebastian’s hand (the crystals had fallen off, leaving raw, pink skin).

"No," Harper shook her head. "Mom never did anything without a reason." She opened the book. She flipped through the pages. Genesis. Exodus. Leviticus... She stopped at Revelations.

Some of the letters in the verses were... different. Marked with tiny pinpricks. Almost invisible to the naked eye. "Sebastian," Harper called out. "Look at this."

Sebastian walked over. He took a magnifying glass from the desk. He looked at the pinpricks. "It's a cipher," Sebastian realized instantly. "A book code. Common in the Cold War." "Jack, give me a pen."

---

[The List]

For the next hour, the room was silent except for the scratching of Sebastian’s pen on a notepad. He decoded the letters, one by one.

A... L... E... X... A... N... D... E... R...

When he finished, he sat back. His face was pale. "My god," Sebastian whispered.

"What is it?" Jack asked, cleaning his rifle.

"It's not a prayer," Sebastian tore the page off the notepad and handed it to Harper. "It's an org chart."

Harper read the list.THE SYNDICATE - BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Alexander Hale (Media Tycoon, New York)

General Ryker (Pentagon, Joint Chiefs)

Baroness Von Stroheim (Banking, Zurich)

Takeshi Nakamura (Tech Giant, Tokyo)

Dr. Thorne (Deceased)

The Chairman (Identity Unknown)

"These people..." Harper’s hands trembled. "They run the world. Banks, armies, news channels..."

"Catherine didn't just survive in that prison," Sebastian looked at the Bible with newfound awe. "She was listening. For thirty years, every time the Warden bragged, or a scientist gossiped, she remembered. She wrote it down." "She mapped the entire beast."

---

[The Strategy]

Sebastian stood up and walked to the window. He looked at his reflection in the glass. He wasn't the "Monster" anymore. He wasn't the "Cripple". He was The Architect.

"We destroyed their product," Sebastian said, his voice cold and precise. "The virus is gone. The meteorite is dust." "But the Syndicate is still rich. They are still powerful." "They will rebuild. Unless..."

"Unless what?" Braun asked.

"Unless we cut off the heads," Sebastian turned to face them. He pinned the list of names to the wall with a knife.

"We have no army," Jack pointed out. "We have no money. You are legally dead."

"We have something better," Sebastian smiled. A dangerous, predator's smile. "We have the element of surprise." "They think we are running. They think we are scared refugees looking for a hole to hide in."

He walked over to the table and picked up the Gold & Steel Ring—the Rolling Pin. He put it back on his finger. "We are going to dismantle them. Piece by piece. Dollar by dollar. Blood for blood."

"Volume 4," Harper stood up next to him. She closed the Bible. "Where do we start?"

Sebastian pointed to the first name on the list.Alexander Hale. "New York," Sebastian said. "We are going back to where it all began." "We are going to crash his party."

---

[The Epilogue]

Somewhere in the Swiss Alps.A High-Tech Sanitarium.

A man sat in a dark room, staring at a wall of screens. On the screens were news reports from France: "Mysterious Earthquake in Avignon," "Gas Explosion in Paris Catacombs."

The man was old, but his eyes were sharp, reptilian. He was hooked up to a machine that pumped a golden fluid into his veins.The Chairman.

A servant entered. "Sir. Thorne is dead. The Source is destroyed."

The Chairman didn't blink. "Thorne was a fanatic. He served his purpose." "But the Sterlings... they are becoming a nuisance."

He pressed a button on his chair. "Activate The Huntsmen." "And tell the Board... we are accelerating the timeline." "If we can't have the virus...