The Heiress He Underestimated novel Chapter 193

Chapter 193 The Last Performance Of Elera Nethys

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“Minimal heat,” Frost said, studying the image. “One, maybe two people. No large heat sources like furnaces. Consistent with a person in a confined space.”

“Can we see inside?” Elera asked, her heart pounding.

“Not with thermal. The walls are too thick. But we have audio.” Frost tapped a command.

A stream of scratchy, filtered audio came through the speakers. It was the sound of… humming. A faint, shaky, but recognizable tune. “Edelweiss.”

Tears sprang to Elera’s eyes. “That’s her. She used to hum that to me when I was scared. When I had nightmares.”

Aunt Margaret, tied to a chair in a dark warehouse, was humming to keep herself calm. The sheer, quiet courage of it broke Elera’s heart and put it back together stronger.

“Location confirmed,” Drakonius said. He looked at Frost. “Can we get a team in quietly?”

Frost studied the building schematics that were now flashing up on another screen. “Old building. Multiple points of entry. He’s likely alone with her, maybe one guard. He wouldn’t trust many people with this. Standard extraction is possible. But…”

“But he’s watching the clock,” Elera finished. “If he sees or hears anything suspicious, if he thinks we’re coming, he might…” She couldn’t say it.

“We need to distract him,” Drakonius said. “Make him look the other way.”

An idea, audacious and risky, began to form in Elera’s mind. It played on the one thing she knew about her father: his ego. His need to be in control, to see his victory.

“What if,” she said slowly, “we give him what he wants?”

Clara choked on a brownie crumb. “Have you lost your mind? We just agreed that was suicide!”

“Not really give it to him,” Elera said, her mind racing. “We make him think we’re giving it to him. We follow his instructions for the document transfer. We set up the press conference. We make it look like we’re folding. We make it so public, so convincing, that he’ll be watching. He’ll be glued to a screen, waiting for his victory lap. It’ll be the ultimate distraction.”

Drakonius was watching her, a spark of admiration in his eyes. “You want to fake our surrender.”

“Yes. We send the document links–to dummy accounts our people control. We schedule a press conference for the end of the twenty–four hour deadline. We make a big show of it.

12:28 Wed, Apr 15 M…

Chapter 193 The Last Performance Of Elera Nethys

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Finished

Lawyers arriving, hair and makeup teams, the whole production. He’ll be watching the news feeds.”

“And while he’s watching the puppet show,” Frost said, understanding, “we go in the back door and take the puppeteer.”

“Exactly.”

Clara whistled. “That’s… kind of brilliant. And also terrifying. What if he checks the documents?”

“Lin can create fake servers and fake verification pages,” Elera said. “Make it look like the transfers are going through. We just need to buy Frost’s team thirty minutes.”

Drakonius looked at Frost. “Can you do it? Extract Margaret and capture Kieran with a thirty- minute window, starting from when the ‘press conference‘ begins?”

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