Ms. CEO’s Baby Daddy Is the Merchant of Death – Episode 18
Connor changed the discharge plan before the black sedan reached the next intersection. Three identical medical convoys left through separate exits while Summer traveled through a service tunnel in an unmarked armored vehicle. Scarlett received every route and contingency as promised. Knowing the danger did not remove her fear, but it prevented fear from making her powerless.
Summer treated the transfer as a secret mission. She wore headphones, held Connor’s hand, and counted security doors as they passed. Connor answered every question with patience he had never shown in a command room. Scarlett saw how easily the ruthless commander disappeared whenever his daughter looked at him.
The Dominion safe residence stood behind the ordinary exterior of a suburban estate. Inside, biometric locks guarded reinforced walls, medical equipment, and an underground operations center. Summer selected a bedroom painted with stars and declared it suitable for all three of them. Scarlett noticed Connor had already stocked it with the child’s favorite books and ice cream.
The comfort did not hide the weapons. Armed personnel watched the grounds, armored vehicles waited below, and every window could withstand rifle fire. Scarlett finally understood the architecture of Connor’s life. Safety, for him, had always meant preparing for war.
Cypher briefed them on Marcus Voss in the secure operations room. Voss had helped transform Dominion from a small weapons laboratory into a global power. His technical brilliance was matched by an appetite Connor considered uncontrollable. When Voss sold targeting systems to extremists, Connor removed him and seized his private network.
Voss disappeared before Dominion could capture him. Over the following years, shell companies connected to him financed rivals, including Lawrence Brickson. Lawrence’s attempt to steal Dominion now appeared to have been a test of Connor’s defenses. Scarlett and Summer offered Voss a new path around those defenses.
An alert from the Hayes audit shifted the investigation. Analysts had found repeated references to Project Aegis in Bennett’s encrypted financial communications. The name appeared beside payments to Stephen, but no corresponding Hayes Group asset existed in the corporate inventory. Whatever Bennett wanted, it was more valuable than the company itself.
Scarlett recognized the name from childhood. Her mother had once developed precision navigation software for emergency aircraft and autonomous rescue systems. She called the research Aegis because it was designed to protect people lost in disasters. After her death, the project vanished from company records.
Connor understood its military potential immediately. Integrated with Dominion guidance systems, Aegis could allow remote weapons to navigate environments where satellites and conventional targeting failed. In responsible hands, it could save lives; in Voss’s hands, it could make hidden attacks almost impossible to stop. The missing research connected the Hayes theft to Connor’s enemies.
Scarlett remembered a private vault her mother maintained beneath Hayes headquarters. Stephen never knew the complete access sequence because it required Scarlett’s biometric authorization. If the Aegis core survived, it would be stored there. She insisted on retrieving it before Bennett found another way inside.
Connor wanted a Dominion team to recover the device without her. Scarlett reminded him that the vault might erase itself if anyone bypassed her identity. More importantly, their new agreement required partnership instead of unilateral decisions. Connor accepted her role and designed the operation around protecting it.
They returned to headquarters after dark with a small covert team. Most employees had left, while Dominion controlled the building’s compromised systems. Scarlett led Connor through an archive corridor and opened an elevator hidden behind her mother’s portrait. The descent carried them beneath the public foundations.
The vault recognized Scarlett’s eyes, voice, and palm. Inside, they found research drives sealed beside a handwritten letter from her mother. Scarlett wanted to read it, but Connor detected an unauthorized access attempt on the network. Someone else had activated the lower security system from the parking structure.
She removed the Aegis drive and placed it in a shielded case. Connor ordered an immediate withdrawal while Cypher redirected their vehicles. The team reached the underground garage to find emergency lights flashing red. Their secure exit had been blocked by a burning delivery truck.
Gunfire struck the concrete around them. Connor pulled Scarlett behind an armored pillar and returned fire with disciplined precision. The attackers moved in coordinated groups, using Dominion countermeasures Voss should never have possessed. This was not a robbery by Bennett’s private guards.
Scarlett stayed close and protected the Aegis case beneath her coat. Connor directed her toward an alternate vehicle while his operatives created a path. She heard him report their status to Cypher and ask for Summer’s location. The answer stopped him in the middle of the firefight.
Summer was not at the garage, but her armored car was crossing the adjacent service road after a precautionary relocation. A second hostile team had intercepted it at the same time. The child’s guards were under attack, and their vehicle could not reverse through the blockade. Voss had divided Connor’s defenses exactly as intended.
Connor told Scarlett to evacuate with the Aegis drive while he went after Summer. She refused to leave him trapped between two battles. Using the garage control panel, she located maintenance routes connected to the service road. A fire-control corridor could bring them within reach of the child’s vehicle.
An explosion destroyed the primary exit and sent fragments across the garage. Connor covered Scarlett as the shock wave knocked them to the ground. The shielded case slid beyond her hand but remained intact. Through the smoke, more attackers descended the ramp.
Cypher’s voice broke through the radio with a warning. Summer’s vehicle had been surrounded, and the enemy was placing charges against its doors. Connor looked from the Aegis drive to the corridor leading toward his daughter. For the first time, Voss had forced the Merchant of Death to choose which treasure he could save.
