The Thorne Heiress Unveiling Shadow novel Chapter 47

The drive back to Sterling was a blur of city lights against the tinted windows of the bespoke, armored Koenigsegg that the Thorne family had provided for her. The car was another one of Evelyn's own designs, a ghost on the market, built for a client who valued security above all else. Its exterior was a sleek, unassuming matte gray, but beneath the surface, it was a fortress on wheels, with a reinforced chassis, bulletproof glass, and its own isolated, military-grade secure operating system.

Evelyn leaned back against the soft leather seat, replaying the conversation with Kaelen in her mind. He was intelligent, more so than she had anticipated. He had connected the dots between Evelyn, Oracle, and Shadow, even without proof. He wasn't an enemy, not yet, but he was a dangerous, powerful variable she would have to manage. His final words echoed in her mind: an asset I intend to have on my side. It wasn't a job offer; it was a declaration of intent.

As the car moved smoothly through the midtown traffic, a small, red light began to flash on the custom dashboard. It was a warning she had never seen before.

EXTERNAL SYSTEM INTRUSION DETECTED.

Before she could even process the warning, it happened. The car's sophisticated, AI-driven navigation system went haywire. The calm, female voice of the GPS was replaced by a blast of harsh, digital static. The main screen, which had been showing a map of Manhattan, dissolved into a chaotic mess of scrolling, corrupted code.

The car, which had been moving at a sensible forty miles per hour, suddenly lurched forward. Evelyn was thrown back against her seat as the engine roared to life, the speedometer needle climbing with terrifying speed—fifty, sixty, seventy miles per hour.

The car's trajectory was locked. It was accelerating directly towards the side of the bus.

Evelyn realized with a chilling certainty that this was not a random system failure. This was an attack. And it was a far cry from the elegant, sophisticated traps she had encountered before. The ransomware attack on the Thorne network had been about money and leverage. This was different. This was brutal, direct, and unsophisticated in its goal. Its only purpose was to turn her two-ton, armored car into a coffin and send it hurtling into a stationary object at over eighty miles per hour. This was an assassination attempt.