Chapter 672
Sienna stared at Silas’s darkened face on the screen. “You think someone injected Maloney with this p>
Silas rested his cigarette on the edge of an ashtray, his eyes growing somber.
“I had it tested. It’s not a standard prescription, and it’s not a common street drug.
That whole area is populated by fishermen. How the hell does a high-tech synthetic just appear out of thin air p>
Silas paused. “You saw Maloney’s condition. That is not a stress response.
Something this critical… whoever dropped it should have burned it to ashes. Instead, it was just sitting there. Like they were waiting for us to find it p>
Thea frowned, deeply troubled. “Then who would inject him with something like this? What’s their end game?
Besides, anyone pulling the strings on a conspiracy this massive wouldn’t make a rookie mistake like leaving the murder weapon behind, would they p>
A true mastermind would meticulously scrub every trace of their involvement. They wouldn’t leave a smoking gun that could tear their whole operation down.
A chill crept over Sienna as she coldly analyzed the logic. “There’s only one explanation. They left it on purpose p>
They deliberately left evidence, entirely unafraid of an investigation.
They might even… want them to look into it.
Was this invisible enemy absolutely certain they couldn’t break the code, or were they just that arrogant in their control?
The implications made Sienna’s blood run cold.
The sheer audacity of the puppet master operating in the shadows sent a shiver down her spine.
“I’ve already rushed the residue for a full chemical analysis p>
Silas broke through her spiraling thoughts, his tone grim. “You don’t need to get your hands dirty p>
As soon as the words left his mouth, a faint chime echoed from his side of the line.
A few seconds later, Silas spoke again.
“The results are in p>
His voice dropped an octave. “I just forwarded you the chemical breakdown. Read it yourself p>
Sienna opened the transferred file, her eyes scanning the lines of data. With every row she read, her frown deepened.
The formula definitely contained fragments of several known psychostimulants.
But the way they were spliced together was completely alien. It was like a grotesque väse glued together from shards of entirely different porcelain.
She recognized every individual piece, but she had never seen them assembled like this.
There was one specific compound that she read over and over again, confirming it simply didn’t exist in her vast medical repertoire.
“I’ve never seen a drug like this,” Sienna stated bluntly.
A rare sense of helplessness bled into Silas’s voice. “My team said the same thing. No matches in any database.
No clinical records. I had them scrub the open market, the black market, and international pharmaceutical archives. This drug does not exist p>
Sienna and Thea exchanged a dark look.
An icy wave of dread washed over them.
A chemical cocktail this bizarre, this singular.
It had to be the Neuro-Shackle—a custom-designed, highly targeted psychotropic toxin engineered specifically to shatter a person’s mind.
What kind of twisted psychopath would even invent something like this?
Did they really harbor that much hatred for the Sterlings?
Just thinking about the gentle, sophisticated, and utterly brilliant Maloney p>
Reduced to this living ghost of a man. It broke Sienna’s heart.
She fell silent for a long moment.
On the screen, Silas’s feed shifted slightly.
He changed his posture, burying his face in his hands and rubbing his temples hard. When he looked back up, the rims of his eyes were raw and red.
In all the time she had known him, she had never seen him look this broken.
Silas had always kept the world at arm’s length, even when he smiled.
He refused to bow his head to anyone.
He hated Jarred for failing to protect Maloney. He hated the Sterlings for hoarding all that power and wealth, only to fail the most genuine, kindest man in their family.
But now, watching Maloney devolve into an incurable, deranged puppet, forced to endure the agonizing fragmentation of his own personality day and night p>