Chapter 10 - The Encrypted Warning
I pulled the phone from my pocket while the remaining guests were being safely evacuated out the side exits under heavy military police escort.
The screen displayed a high-priority encrypted data feed from my former unit commander in Washington. I swiped to open it, my eyes scanning the rapid-fire text.
“WARNING: Target primary asset, Director Vance, has initiated emergency liquidation protocols. All offshore shell accounts are being scrubbed. Financial records indicate a secondary data cache is currently being transferred to an offshore server in the Caribbean. Time to complete: 45 minutes.”
Forty-five minutes.
If Director Vance—the civilian head of the defense logistics board and the man pulling the strings behind the entire operation—managed to scrub those servers before the federal warrant was executed, the entire syndicate would slip through the legal net, and my family’s name would remain permanently chained to their treason.
I locked my phone and slipped it back into my tactical pocket, squaring my shoulders as I looked around the room.
My father was sitting silently by the wall, staring at his hands in numb shock. Daniel was standing near the piano like a ghost, completely catatonic. And my grandfather was closing the leather folio with a slow, deliberate click, looking up at me with an expression that said he was ready for whatever came next.
“Maya,” General Vance said, walking over and stopping beside me. “I saw the intelligence ping. The FBI and the US Marshals are mobilizing a raid on the director’s private estate outside Arlington, but they’re still twenty miles out through the traffic gridlock.”
“And if we wait for them, the servers will be wiped,” I replied, my voice steady and cold.
General Vance looked at me for a long, quiet moment, then reached into his coat pocket and tossed a set of keys onto the small table beside my grandfather’s chair.
“The unmarked tactical Suburban parked by the service loading dock has full federal clearance and secure comms,” the General said quietly. “Don't do anything reckless, Sergeant.”
May you like
“I never do, General,” I said, picking up the keys.
I turned on my heel and walked out toward the service exit, leaving the shattered wreckage of my family’s corporate delusions behind me as I stepped out into the night to finish the fight.
