Chapter 15 - THE GHOST AT THE HARBOR
Daniel bolted out of the prison facility, ripping open the official prison transfer order he had confiscated from the warden's desk.
The document authorized Evelyn’s immediate relocation to a private terminal at Fort Worth Alliance Airport, signed by a federal magistrate named Julian Sterling.
Julian Sterling was not a stranger. Julian had been Daniel’s defense attorney, his corporate strategist, and the man who stood beside him when Daniel signed the papers to dissolve the Mercer Trust.
"Marcus!" Daniel barked into his Bluetooth headset as he sprinted toward his car. "Where is Julian?"
"Julian’s phone went dark twenty minutes ago," Marcus replied, engine noise roaring in the background. "Daniel, I’ve tracked the transponder of the vehicle that attacked your lake house. It didn't head for an airfield. It headed for the private docks at Terminal 4 in Boston. There’s a Panamanian-flagged medical yacht clearing customs right now."
"Get Rebecca and Lily to the safehouse in Maine," Daniel commanded, shifting his vehicle into drive and tearing out of the prison parking lot at ninety miles an hour. "Don't trust the local police. Don't trust anyone with a Mercer badge. Julian sold us out."
"Daniel, you can't go to the docks alone," Marcus shouted over the static. "The yacht belongs to Vance’s private security arm. They have thirty armed contractors on board!"
"I'm not alone," Daniel said through clenched teeth. "I have the footage."
He reached into the passenger seat and picked up the second item from Box 00: the vintage tape recorder. On the tape was not an audio confession. It was a digital decryption key labeled *PROJECT ICARUS - VANCE/MERCER ARCHIVE*.
For forty years, Evelyn had not just been an accomplice; she had been a blackmailer. Every bribe, every illegal medical trial, every corrupt politician bought by Arthur Vance had been meticulously documented and backed up on an encrypted server located beneath the old Mercer wharf.
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Daniel slammed his foot on the accelerator. "If Vance wants Lily, he’s going to have to trade the entire world he built for her."
***
