Chapter 3 - The Traitor's Code
My blood turned to absolute ice as I stared at the lethal medical device resting securely in my father's greedy hand.
I knew with absolute certainty that he was not bluffing, because the dark web software he displayed was entirely authentic.
"Okay, let us just calm down and talk about this rationally," I said, raising my hands in a universally recognized gesture of surrender.
I needed to desperately stall for time while my satellite phone silently established a secure connection in my pocket.
"There is absolutely nothing left to discuss, Maya," my mother snapped, pushing the wooden clipboard closer to my trembling grandmother.
I gently took the pen from the bed and pretended to carefully inspect the dense legal jargon printed on the transfer documents.
While pretending to read, I felt the familiar, rapid double-vibration against my leg, confirming my phone had finally bypassed the jammer.
I discreetly tapped the physical volume button three times in rapid succession, secretly triggering a silent SOS beacon to my federal agency.
"Whoever you hired on the dark web to orchestrate this is going to steal the money from you anyway," I warned my father sincerely.
Sarah rolled her eyes and proudly declared that their technical contact was a highly vetted, absolute professional.
My father proudly turned the tablet around to show me the active command line interface running in the background.
I quickly analyzed the unique string of malicious code scrolling across the screen, looking for any identifiable digital signature.
My breath hitched in my throat as I recognized a highly specific, customized algorithmic loop hidden within the malware.
It was a proprietary federal tracking script, an exact piece of code that only three people in the entire world had the security clearance to write.
I was one of them, my director was the second, and my trusted agency partner, Liam, was the third.
"You didn't hire a random hacker on the dark web, you hired a corrupt federal agent," I realized aloud, sheer horror creeping into my voice.
The digital tablet in my father's hand suddenly chimed loudly, and the screen instantly shifted to a live, encrypted audio call.
A familiar, deeply chilling voice echoed through the small tablet speakers, completely shattering my entire world.
"I told you they were going to figure it out eventually, Richard," Liam's voice casually remarked over the digital connection.
Liam had been my trusted partner for five years, covering my back in countless dangerous raids across the country.
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Now, he was actively helping my completely corrupt family extort my grandmother for her massive, hidden fortune.
"Tie her to the heavy wooden chair, Richard, because Maya is entirely too dangerous to be left unsecured," Liam formally ordered my father.
