Chapter 16 - The Decryption
We drive straight through the night, leaving the lush California scenery behind for the desolate, arid landscapes of Nevada.
Liam's safehouse is an abandoned, off-the-grid solar monitoring station miles away from any major highway.
It is dusty, blisteringly hot, and entirely invisible to satellite surveillance.
We set up a makeshift command center on a rusty metal table.
Using a portable generator, Liam powers up his encrypted laptops, and we begin the grueling task of analyzing the ledger.
The scope of Daniel Pierce's corruption is staggering.
We find the exact transaction records detailing how Vanguard Holdings manipulated stock prices, funded illegal offshore mining operations, and laundered cartel money through my fake father's logistics routes.
But the most terrifying folder is labeled "The Board."
It contains high-definition videos, audio recordings, and undeniable blackmail material on four sitting US Senators, a federal appellate judge, and the current Deputy Director of the FBI.
"This is why the raid on Vanguard was so swift," Liam realizes, his eyes wide as he reads the documents.
"The Deputy Director of the FBI rushed the raid to contain the damage.
He arrested Daniel and your fake father to make it look like a massive victory, but he deliberately ignored the deeper financial trails to protect himself and 'The Board'."
I feel a cold sweat break out across my neck.
"They controlled the investigation from the inside.
That means the FBI isn't hunting the syndicate. The FBI is the syndicate."
"Exactly," Liam says, rapidly typing code to isolate the Deputy Director's files.
"Evelyn Cross. Does that name mean anything to you?"
I search my memory. "She was Vanguard's Chief Financial Officer.
I saw her at a corporate dinner once. Quiet, sharp, always standing in Daniel's shadow."
"She is not in the shadows anymore," Liam says, bringing up a series of recent encrypted emails.
"With Daniel in prison, Evelyn Cross has assumed full control of The Board.
She ordered the prison riot that killed Richard.
May you like
And she is the one offering a five-million-dollar bounty to whatever mercenary group brings you to her alive."
Before I can process the terrifying reality that a corporate executive is actively hunting me, the perimeter alarms of the solar station begin screaming.
