Chapter 31 - The Intercepted Call
With a decisive keystroke, I executed a total lockdown protocol on the corporate headquarters.
"The building is sealed," I told Elias, staring at the flashing green confirmation on my screen. "The heavy steel blast doors in the basement have engaged. Silas cannot exit the server room, and the cellular dampeners have been activated. He is trapped in a concrete box."
Elias smiled a grim, satisfied smile. "My team is moving in. We have him."
Within fifteen minutes, Elias’s tactical feed broadcasted the live capture. Silas Vance was apprehended by private security and immediately handed over to the arriving police forces. But the most valuable piece of evidence wasn't the malware drive he carried; it was his burner phone.
The next morning, Marcus arrived at the retreat with a secured audio file provided by the federal prosecutor.
"When Silas was trapped in the server room, he panicked," Marcus explained, setting a small speaker on the desk. "He managed to bypass the dampeners for exactly two minutes using a specialized satellite uplink. He made a desperate phone call to his boss. The feds intercepted and recorded the transmission."
Marcus pressed play.
The audio was filled with static, but the voices were unmistakably clear.
"The doors locked me in! She knew the override!" Silas’s panicked voice echoed from the speaker.
A cold, familiar, and utterly chilling voice responded. It was Daniel, calling from a contraband, smuggled cell phone inside the federal penitentiary.
"You incompetent fool," Daniel hissed violently. "I paid you three million dollars to burn those servers and destroy her reputation! If you get caught, you keep your mouth shut. If you tie this back to me, I will have you killed before you even make it to a holding cell."
The recording clicked off.
May you like
My mother, who had been listening silently in the corner, let out a slow, trembling breath. "He ordered a hit from inside a prison."
"He didn't just order a hit," Marcus said, looking at me with a triumphant gleam in his eye. "He explicitly admitted to paying a fixer with stolen money, and he conspired to destroy federal evidence. The appeal is officially dead. And Daniel is facing a brand new set of federal racketeering charges."
