Chương 9 - The Dead Drop
Meline stared at the dead phone in her hand, her mind instantly shifting from panic into pure tactical execution.
She could not just walk into Pier 40 and hand a global terrorist his laundered billions.
She also could not abandon the only family she had left in the world.
She opened her laptop in the corner of the coffee shop and plugged the flash drive into the USB port.
Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she executed a rapid, aggressive data-cloning protocol.
She copied the entire ledger containing Preston’s illegal transactions and Tariq’s terrorist funding onto a secure cloud server.
Then, she wrote a dead-man’s switch.
If she did not input a specific password every sixty minutes, the cloud server would automatically email the entire ledger to the FBI, the SEC, and every major news outlet in the country.
Meline pulled the physical drive from her computer and walked out into the cold afternoon air.
She took a yellow cab down to the desolate, rust-covered shipping yards of Pier 40.
The massive metal warehouses loomed over the freezing water, completely abandoned by the city.
Meline walked slowly through the massive open doors of Warehouse 7, her footsteps echoing loudly on the concrete.
Tariq Al-Fayed stood in the center of the vast space, surrounded by six heavily armed mercenaries.
Evelyn was tied to a wooden chair near the water’s edge, looking exhausted but unharmed.
David was lying on the floor nearby, bleeding from a nasty cut on his forehead but still conscious.
"You always were punctual, Agent Ross," Tariq said, smiling warmly as if greeting an old friend.
"Let them go, Tariq," Meline demanded, holding the flash drive up for him to see.
"The exchange happens simultaneously," Tariq replied, gesturing for his men to step back from the hostages.
Meline walked forward slowly, keeping her eyes locked on the mercenaries' trigger fingers.
She reached the center of the room and placed the flash drive onto a rusted metal barrel.
Tariq nodded, and a mercenary cut the zip ties binding Evelyn and David.
David quickly helped Evelyn to her feet, shielding her frail body as they hurried toward Meline.
"Go to the car outside and start the engine," Meline whispered to David as they passed her.
Tariq stepped forward and picked up the flash drive, inspecting it carefully.
"It is a shame we find ourselves on opposite sides, Meline. You are remarkably talented," Tariq said.
"I sent a copy of that drive to a secure server," Meline stated loudly, making Tariq freeze.
"If I do not enter a password in exactly thirty minutes, the entire world gets your financial records."
Tariq’s warm smile vanished instantly, replaced by a look of sheer, murderous rage.
He drew a heavy pistol from his coat and aimed it directly at Meline’s heart.
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"Then you had better give me that password right now," Tariq demanded.
Before Meline could respond, the massive skylights of the warehouse shattered as tactical smoke grenades rained down onto the floor.
