Chapter 9 - The Masterstroke
The massive screen behind Silas flickered wildly, the video of Lyra vanishing. It was replaced by a live, undeniable feed.
It was a copy of the master ledger, scrolling rapidly. But it wasn't just Silas's crimes being broadcast to the room. Lyra's secondary protocol had activated.
The screen split in two. On the right side, audio files began to play loudly through the dining room speakers.
It was Julian's voice. Unedited. Raw.
"My father is a monster, Lyra... I’ve been looking for a way to destroy him... We burn Silas to the ground, I take the company..."
The silence in the dining room was absolute, broken only by the sound of Julian's recorded voice plotting treason against his own father. The board members stared in utter shock.
Silas slowly turned his head to look at his son. The patriarch's face was no longer red with rage; it was pale, cold, and utterly lethal.
"Father... it's a deepfake! She faked it!" Julian stammered, backing away in sheer terror.
But the screen kept scrolling. It showed bank transfers from Julian's private accounts to the offshore shell companies used to pay off the estate's corrupt guards. It showed Julian's signature on illegal weapons manifests. Lyra hadn't just exposed Silas; she had tethered Julian to every single one of his father's crimes. If Silas went down, Julian went down with him.
"You treacherous little rat," Silas whispered, lunging for his son.
Pandemonium erupted. Board members scrambled for the doors, pulling out their phones to call their lawyers. The security guards, realizing their employers were about to be indicted, abandoned their posts, sprinting for the exits.
In the chaos, Lyra slipped away. She moved through the panicked crowd like a shadow, entirely unnoticed. Her work here was done. The emails with the ledger and the recordings had already been sent to the FBI, the SEC, and every major news outlet in the country.
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Sirens began to wail in the distance, a massive, terrifying chorus echoing up the cliffside. The flashing red and blue lights pierced the darkness of the heavy rain outside. The untouchable fortress was finally under siege.
Lyra walked out of the dining room, leaving the Montgomery men tearing each other apart amidst the ruins of their empire.
