Chapter 6 - The Voice on the Line
The receiver felt heavy against my ear, the plastic slick with the chill of the Colorado winter seeping through the apartment walls. Outside, the wind whipped against the glass, but inside, the room was suspended in a tight, suffocating quiet. Erica stood a few feet away, her arms tightly crossed over her chest, watching me with wide, unblinking eyes. She didn't need to hear my father's side of the conversation to know who was on the line.
"You're making a mistake, Liam," my father’s voice continued, steady and unyielding. "You think you're holding all the cards because you found a piece of digital trash in a study. But you don't understand how heavy the table is. That fifty thousand dollars was just a polite demonstration. If you keep moving down this path, the next account frozen won't be yours—it will be the disability fund for every soldier under your command who was wounded in your last deployment."
My grip on the phone tightened until my knuckles turned white. A cold fury settled deep in my chest, replacing the shock of the banking alert.
"You're threatening my men now?" I said, keeping my voice low and controlled. "Is that what thirty years of building a respectable name has come to, Dad? Extortion?"
"It’s not extortion, it's reality," he replied, his tone chillingly pragmatic. "The world doesn't run on West Point ideals, Liam. It runs on leverage, capital, and survival. Jason made a mistake, yes, but I built this family's future so neither of you would ever have to scrape for a living. I protected you, even when you chose to throw your life away on a military salary. And this is how you repay me? By teaming up with a bitter ex-wife to tear down everything I've constructed?"
"You didn't protect anyone," I shot back, looking at Erica, who flinched at the sharpness of my tone. "You used Jason as a shield, and when the walls started cracking, you bolted for Geneva while leaving him to take the fall. And now you're trying to hide behind my unit."
A brief pause hung over the line. For a fraction of a second, the iron-clad facade cracked, revealing the tired, desperate old man hiding beneath the executive veneer.
"I'm at the downtown office," my father said quietly, his voice dropping its authoritative edge. "Suite 400. Come alone, Liam. Bring the drive. We can settle this like a family before the federal regulators open their doors on Monday morning. If you don't show up by midnight, the asset freeze expands across every account associated with your name and your unit's charitable fund. Choose wisely."
The line went dead with a sharp click.
I lowered the phone slowly, staring at the blank screen as the battery indicator flickered. Erica uncrossed her arms and took a step forward, her voice trembling. "What did he say?"
"He’s not in Geneva," I said, looking up to meet her gaze. "He’s at his downtown office. And he just threatened to ruin my unit's charity fund if I don't hand over the drive by midnight."
"He’s bluffing," Erica whispered, though her face said she didn't believe it. "Your father doesn't have the legal reach to touch military-affiliated accounts directly."
"He doesn't need legal reach," I replied, grabbing my jacket from the back of the chair. "He has corporate influence, shadow accounts, and a network of lawyers who know how to tie up federal funds in injunctions for months. If my soldiers' families miss their holiday stipends because of me, the unit's morale will fracture before our next deployment."
"So what are you going to do?" Erica asked, her eyes searching mine. "Walk in there and give him the drive? After everything he's done?"
May you like
"No," I said, sliding the encrypted flash drive back into my inner pocket. "I'm going to walk in there and give him a choice. But I need to make sure he can't bury us both before I do."
---
