Chapter 15 - The Unlikely Ally
I stare at Liam, feeling a dangerous mix of betrayal and relief.
"You knew who I was the whole time," I accuse him, my voice trembling. "You planned to meet me."
"Yes," Liam admits freely, keeping his hands visible and away from the weapon.
"When your video went viral, I recognized Daniel Pierce in the background.
I knew your father's logistics company was Vanguard's dirty secret.
When the FBI raided them, I knew they didn't find the primary ledger because none of the corrupt politicians tied to Vanguard were arrested."
He steps closer, his eyes pleading for me to understand.
"I tracked you to Stanford. I wanted to see if you had a piece of the puzzle.
But when I saw how terrified you were, I realized you were a victim in all of this, just like my sister.
I wasn't going to push you.
But now that you have the drive, they will never stop hunting you, Emma."
I look at the gun on the desk, then at the glowing monitors displaying the sins of a billionaire empire.
I am completely alone in the world.
My fake father is dead.
My mother is in prison.
My biological father is a ruthless criminal.
I have a ten-million-dollar target on my back.
"So what do we do?" I ask, making a conscious decision to trust him.
It is a massive risk, but I have no other options.
"We expose them all," Liam says firmly. "But we cannot trust the FBI.
We just saw that the syndicate has people inside the prison system.
We need to hand this drive over to someone who cannot be bought.
The Director of National Intelligence."
"How do we even get close to someone like that?" I ask.
"My sister had contacts in Washington," Liam explains.
"We have a secure location we can use in the Nevada desert to sift through these files and build an undeniable case.
We download the most damning evidence onto a physical server, wipe the original drive, and make a run for D.C."
I nod slowly. "Then we leave tonight. Right now."
We spend the next hour rapidly transferring terabytes of encrypted data onto Liam's portable hard drives.
We wipe his main computer and smash the hard drives with a hammer to destroy any digital footprint.
May you like
We pack his car, a non-descript gray sedan, in the dead of night.
As we drive away from the Stanford campus, I know my life as a normal student is officially over.
