Chapter 29 - The Breach
"Look out!" Daniel shouted, throwing his arm around my waist and lunging violently to the side just as the sedan’s front bumper clipped the wooden railing where Celeste had been standing a second earlier.
Splinters exploded into the air like shrapnel. Celeste screamed, stumbling backward onto the slick wooden planks as the vehicle slammed on its brakes and skidded sideways in a cloud of burning rubber and white exhaust.
The passenger door flew open before the car had even come to a complete stop. A tall figure in a dark overcoat stepped out, his face partially obscured by the shadow of a raised umbrella, though the expensive silver cufflinks and tailored posture were unmistakable.
It wasn't a hired thug. It was Julian—Arthur’s primary corporate attorney who had sat silently across from us in the boardroom less than two hours ago.
"Get in the car, Celeste," Julian ordered, his voice cold, calm, and carrying an absolute, terrifying authority that contrasted sharply with the chaos of the moment. He kept his right hand deep inside his overcoat pocket, gripping something heavy and metallic.
Celeste scrambled backward on the wet wood, shaking her head frantically. "No! You said we were just going to hide the secondary drives! You didn't say anything about running people down!"
"You outlived your usefulness the moment you called them," Julian replied smoothly, taking a deliberate step toward her with his gaze locked onto Daniel and me. "Arthur was a sentimental old fool who let his family pride blind him to how the real world works. But the secondary servers in the Cayman subsidiary hold enough incriminating data to sink every major banking partner in New England—and I am not going to let a junior risk analyst and his wife dismantle twenty years of work because of a guilty conscience."
Daniel stepped in front of me, his jaw clenched, his eyes scanning the open water behind the pier and the narrow escape route blocked entirely by Julian’s sedan. We had no phone signal out here in the dead zone of the old naval yard, and federal backup was twenty minutes away across the city.
"You're too late, Julian," Daniel said, his voice ringing out clearly over the roar of the surf. "Investigator Harris already has the 2023 audit overrides. The federal receivership controls the main tower. Whatever you're trying to protect, it’s already public record."
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Julian’s lips curled into a thin, dangerous smile. "Harris has papers, Daniel. Paper can be contested, burned, or lost in procedural appeals. But digital encryption keys stored on an un-intercepted offshore server? Those are absolute."
He pulled his hand slowly out of his pocket. It wasn't a weapon he was holding, but a encrypted satellite transmitter no larger than a deck of cards, its small green LED light blinking rhythmically in the gathering dark.
