Ms. CEO’s Baby Daddy Is the Merchant of Death – Episode 63
Black Meridian struck three evidence sites before dawn. They burned one archive, attacked a witness convoy, and cut power to a Constellation node. The operations occurred without a single network signal.
The task force asked Connor to identify their tactics. He recognized staggered movement, analog timing, and routes chosen to defeat surveillance. He had written the original training doctrine.
Dominion once used Black Meridian where governments wanted results without attribution. Connor believed he dissolved the unit after Vale’s removal. Vale had preserved it through hidden pensions and manufactured identities.
Several active members had trained under Connor personally. Their loyalty belonged to the commander he had been, not the father or reformer he had become. Vale promised them restoration of the old Dominion.
Connor could have summoned former loyalists to fight them. Instead, he gave investigators personnel files, supply habits, and emergency codes. Every disclosure exposed another part of his own illegal history.
Some officials warned that the information might support new charges against him. Connor submitted it anyway. Protecting evidence could not depend on protecting his reputation.
Scarlett watched him sign the release. The Merchant of Death had once controlled loyalty by secrecy. Her husband was dismantling that power with his own hand.
Black Meridian attempted to extract Dr. Mara Chen before the hearing. Police intercepted the vehicle using an old recognition phrase Connor remembered. Two operatives surrendered when they realized Vale had lied about Connor’s return.
They revealed that Vale planned attacks against every scientist willing to testify. Lighthouse deliberately excluded Meridian members from threat scores, allowing them to pass automated security. The supposedly objective system contained a private exception.
Evelyn added the exception to her testimony. Vale had created a world where algorithms judged everyone except the people enforcing his will. Prediction was never neutral.
Richard traced Meridian payments through Reed-era funds. Some accounts existed because he once approved unreported security expenses. He released the records despite the damage to his companies.
Lily asked whether the Reed family would survive another scandal. Richard answered that a name preserved through lies did not deserve survival. Summer overheard and awarded him another cardboard star.
The task force arrested Meridian quartermasters in four countries. Weapons caches, false passports, and hostage plans entered public evidence. Vale’s invisible army became visible.
A remaining commander contacted Connor privately. He offered to abandon Vale if Connor reclaimed Dominion’s old authority. The men wanted a leader, not accountability.
Connor refused. He told them Dominion would never again provide belonging in exchange for unquestioning violence. Those who surrendered would receive due process, not personal forgiveness.
Vale released the conversation after editing it to imply Connor still commanded Meridian. Cypher produced the complete recording before the lie spread. Transparent archives had become their defense.
The international hearing remained scheduled. Security shifted from algorithmic screening to human teams with independent oversight. Evelyn entered knowing Vale expected her fear.
Before testimony began, a Meridian marksman targeted the building. Connor identified the firing angle from its reflection but obeyed the task-force commander’s evacuation order. Police captured the shooter alive.
The marksman carried a message addressed to Connor. Vale promised the hearing was only a rehearsal. The final judgment would occur where Connor’s career first began.
Connor remembered a warehouse, a highway, and a truck used before Dominion had a public name. He did not yet understand which beginning Vale meant, but the past was moving toward his family again.