Chapter 8 - The Headquarters
“No!” Mave screamed, grabbing Vincent’s arm as he moved toward the door.
“If you walk in there, Julian will kill you on the spot!”
Vincent looked down at her, his expression softening just for a fraction of a second.
“I won't let him touch your sister, Mave.”
“He wants the throne, I will give it to him.”
Mave shook her head violently, wiping the tears from her face.
“If you surrender, he kills you and he probably kills Sarah anyway to tie up loose ends.”
“Julian is a psychopath.”
She stood up, her logistical mind finally breaking through the paralyzing fear.
“There has to be another way.”
“Leo, how many loyal men do we have left in the city?”
Leo rubbed his jaw nervously.
“Maybe ten.”
“The rest will be waiting to see who holds the bank accounts in the morning.”
“Ten isn't enough to storm the headquarters,” Vincent stated grimly.
“Julian will have fifty heavily armed guards on the perimeter.”
Mave began pacing the small living room, her mind racing.
“Julian said he transferred the treasury into a private offshore account,” Mave muttered to herself.
“He didn't walk out of the bank with physical cash.”
“He authorized a digital wire transfer.”
She spun around to face Vincent.
“I need my laptop.”
“If he transferred the money digitally, the transaction requires a multi-signature authentication to clear the international holding server.”
Vincent frowned.
“Yes, but Julian had my father’s master override codes.”
Mave ran to her bedroom and grabbed her company laptop, throwing it onto the kitchen table.
“Your father didn't write the security protocols for the holding server, Vincent.”
“I did.”
She flipped the laptop open, her fingers flying across the keyboard with terrifying speed.
“When I updated the accounting software last year, I installed a latent quarantine protocol in case of a hostile digital takeover.”
She pulled up the encrypted mainframe of the Costa Syndicate.
“The transfer cleared the bank, but the funds are currently frozen in a digital escrow waiting for secondary approval.”
“Julian doesn't actually have the money yet.”
Leo stared at the screen over her shoulder in absolute awe.
“Can you cancel the transfer?” Leo asked.
“No,” Mave replied, typing furiously.
“But I can reroute it.”
She looked up at Vincent, her eyes burning with a fierce, brilliant determination.
May you like
“I am going to transfer the entire Costa Syndicate treasury into a secure account registered in my name.”
“And then I am going to blackmail your brother.”
