Chapter 4 - The Phantom Threat
Jack sat in his study, staring at the digital countdown on his secure banking monitor.
Fifty million dollars was a massive sum, but he would gladly trade his entire empire for Callie.
He authorized the transfer, loading the untraceable funds onto a single, encrypted hard drive.
He knew walking into the abandoned shipyard alone was a tactical suicide mission.
However, he could not risk involving the police and having the kidnappers execute his daughter.
Jack spent the next few hours studying the old architectural blueprints of the shipyard.
He had actually designed the renovation plans for that exact dock a decade ago before the project went bankrupt.
He knew every blind spot, every rusted catwalk, and every hidden drainage tunnel in the facility.
At eleven at night, Jack drove to the edge of the city under a moonless sky.
The shipyard was a desolate wasteland of towering shipping containers and massive, rotting cranes.
Jack parked his car outside the main gate and walked in with the encrypted drive in his hand.
The freezing wind howled through the empty containers, sounding like the wails of ghosts.
A bright spotlight suddenly blinded him from the top of a rusted warehouse.
"Throw your weapon on the ground, Jack!" a voice echoed through a megaphone.
Jack pulled his pistol from his coat and tossed it onto the wet concrete.
Three armed men stepped out from the shadows, their faces covered by black tactical masks.
They patted him down brutally before leading him into the cavernous, dimly lit warehouse.
In the center of the massive room, Sarah was tied to a wooden chair, her face bruised and bleeding.
Jack looked around frantically, but Lena was nowhere to be seen.
"Where is my daughter?" Jack shouted into the darkness.
A tall figure stepped out from behind a shipping container, clapping his hands in a slow, mocking rhythm.
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"She is not your daughter anymore, Jack," the man said, pulling off his mask.
Jack felt all the air leave his lungs as he stared at the face of his former business partner, Marcus.
