Chapter 10 - The Unseen Player
The text message glowed coldly against the dark screen of my phone, the cryptic warning casting an uneasy shadow over the quiet bedroom.
I stared at the words, my thumb hovering over the screen. Before I could process the threat or think about who might have sent it, my phone rang loudly, breaking the silence.
It was Marcus Vance.
I swiped to answer, pressing the phone to my ear. “Marcus? Is something wrong?”
“Clara, I’m still at the firm reviewing the final asset seizure documents,” Marcus’s voice sounded tense, stripped of its usual professional calm. “We hit a major snag with the primary corporate holding entity. The Vanguard Capital trust account—the one backing all of Gregory’s dummy corporations—has been completely wiped clean within the last ten minutes.”
My breath hitched. “Wiped clean? How? The federal injunction froze all accounts.”
“That’s just it,” Marcus replied urgently. “Someone with a level-four federal override authorization executed an emergency asset transfer right before our injunction hit the main server. The money didn't just get frozen; it vanished into a blind overseas trust managed by an anonymous shell corporation in Zurich.”
The warning text message I had just received flashed back into my mind: You think you beat Gregory? He was just a low-level player.
“Who has level-four federal override power, Marcus?” I asked, my voice dropping to a harsh whisper as a cold dread settled into my stomach.
“Only a handful of high-ranking financial power brokers in the state,” Marcus said grimly. “People tied directly to Arthur Sterling... and people even higher up the political ladder. Clara, whoever is backing Gregory isn't just a corporate firm. We just kicked a hornet's nest much bigger than we anticipated.”
Before I could answer, a sudden, sharp sound echoed from downstairs—the faint, unmistakable click of our front door unlatching.
May you like
I froze, holding the phone tightly to my ear as absolute silence fell over the bedroom.
“Marcus,” I whispered, my heart slamming against my ribs. “Somebody just came into the house.”
