Chapter 10 - Shadows in the Pentagon
10
Deep within the subterranean labyrinth of the Pentagon’s E-Ring, far away from public congressional hearings and press briefings, a dim, secure briefing room glowed with the cold light of encrypted monitors.
General Marcus Vance—no relation to the federal prosecutor—stood at the head of the conference table, staring grimly at a redacted intelligence dossier stamped with the red seal of the Secretary of Defense.
Standing opposite him was a civilian attaché sent directly from the White House national security council.
"The Hawthorne situation has blown past our containment protocols, General," the attaché said flatly, adjusting his glasses. "The micro-drive leaked through federal channels is already being reviewed by the Senate Armed Services Committee. Vanguard is finished. Their assets have been seized, and their leadership is singing like canaries to federal prosecutors."
General Vance crossed his arms, his jaw tightening into a hard, dangerous line. "Vanguard was just a subsidiary contractor, a disposable shell. The core architecture of Project Icarus—the neural-net flight guidance protocols—was never stored on their local servers."
"Are you certain?" the attaché asked sharply.
"Positive," Vance replied, walking over to the main holographic display terminal. He tapped a command sequence, bringing up a secure, deep-storage schematic labeled PROJECT ICARUS - PHASE TWO. "The physical core drive containing the AI neural network wasn't in Liam Hawthorne's estate safe. And it wasn't on the micro-drive he copied."
The holographic projection rotated slowly in the center of the room, revealing a complex, multi-layered quantum data-vault buried beneath an abandoned missile silo in the Nevada desert.
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"Where is it?" the attaché whispered.
General Vance stared at the glowing holographic coordinates, a cold, calculating smile touching his lips. "It’s sitting in a private vault at Hawthorne Global’s primary research facility in Geneva. And Raymond Hawthorne doesn't even know it's there yet."
