The rain had not stopped since the night before.
That morning, the city felt slow to move, as if even the traffic could sense the pressure building around Ardent and the Sterling family.
In the apartment office, Ethan sat in front of a laptop full of open files.
Helix Consortium.
The name kept circling in his head.
He had contacted two old acquaintances in the international legal world. He had also accessed corporate archives rarely touched. Yet the results were almost nothing.
It was as if the organization had never truly existed.
"Or they're deliberately keeping themselves hidden," Ethan muttered.
Sophia stood by the window, watching the rain fall like thin lines on the glass.
"If Helix is really that big," she said softly, "why are there almost no records about them?"
Ethan looked at the screen again.
"Because organizations like that never use the same name twice."
Sophia turned around. "What do you mean?"
