Chapter 10 - The False Victory
I stared at the blinking red light on the console.
I picked up the heavy receiver, expecting it to be Daniel Brooks calling with a chaotic update from Hartwell.
"Callahan," I answered, projecting absolute authority.
A sharp, staticky silence greeted me.
Then, a familiar, arrogant voice echoed through the speaker.
"Congratulations on your hostile takeover, Emily."
My blood turned to absolute ice.
It was Ryan.
"You're supposed to be in federal custody," I breathed, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs.
"I was," Ryan chuckled smoothly. "For about two hours."
"Until the lead FBI agent uncuffed me in the transport van and handed me a burner phone."
I gripped the edge of the mahogany desk, my mind spinning wildly out of control.
"What are you talking about?"
"You really thought Arthur was stupid enough to let Vanessa and Apex steal his company?" Ryan mocked, his voice dripping with condescension.
"The FBI raid wasn't real, Emily."
"They were private military contractors hired by Arthur to stage an arrest and invalidate the buyout documents."
I felt the floor completely drop out from beneath me.
Arthur hadn't been cornered.
He had orchestrated the entire spectacle to protect his assets from Vanessa's blackmail while simultaneously framing me for the missing fifty million.
"But Leo stole the money," I stammered. "He secured my immunity."
Ryan laughed louder this time.
"Leo works for Arthur, you idiot."
"Arthur paid Leo to embed the ghost protocol and route the fifty million into Arthur's hidden offshore accounts."
"Your 'lawyer' from Vanguard Legal? She was an actress."
"The immunity document is a complete forgery."
I dropped the phone onto the desk, my hands shaking uncontrollably.
I hadn't won anything.
May you like
I was sitting in an empty office, completely unprotected, while the real federal authorities were hunting me for a multi-million dollar theft I had openly confessed to engineering on a fake thumb drive.
The heavy mahogany doors of the office suddenly slammed shut, locking from the outside with a terrifying, definitive click.
