Chapter 26 - The Fixers
Thirty minutes later, the heavy steel door of the panic room hissed open. It wasn't the police who entered, but Max, accompanied by two massive, heavily armed private security operatives dressed in tactical suits. The local authorities had been strategically held at the perimeter of the grand foyer. In Victoria Sterling's world, problems were contained and sanitized long before the official police reports were ever filed.
Max looked around the pristine panic room, her eyes widening slightly when she saw Victoria kneeling on the floor, securing a pressure bandage to Jasper’s ribs.
"The perimeter is entirely secure, ma'am," Max reported, her voice rigidly professional despite the chaos. "The mercenaries in the foyer are currently in the custody of our private interrogation team. We have scrubbed the internal camera feeds. As far as the authorities are concerned, this was a random, failed home invasion. Jasper’s presence is completely undocumented."
Victoria stood up, wiping the blood from her hands with a sterile towel. She smoothed her ruined silk robe, the cold, calculating CEO instantly returning to the surface.
"And the men who hired them?" Victoria asked sharply. "The board members behind Aegis Vanguard?"
"We recovered the communications array from the mercenary leader," Max confirmed, a dangerous smirk returning to her lips. "We have the routing numbers, the encrypted emails, and the offshore accounts. The men who tried to take your company tonight have left a massive digital footprint. By tomorrow morning, I will have enough evidence to bury them in federal prison for the rest of their natural lives."
Victoria nodded, her eyes flashing with absolute, terrifying authority. "Drain their accounts. Liquidate their assets. I want them completely destroyed before the sun rises."
"Yes, ma'am," Max said, turning her attention to the bleeding man on the floor. "And what do we do about Jasper? He breached our root directory. He violated his parole. Technically, he is an enemy combatant."
Jasper closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the steel wall. He didn't have the strength to fight anymore. He had saved the child, but he had still broken every rule in the book. He fully expected Victoria to hand him over to the police, ensuring he spent the rest of his life back in a federal cage.
Victoria looked down at Jasper for a long, silent moment. She thought about the fire axe shattering the glass. She thought about the bronze statue falling in the red light.
"Jasper is dead," Victoria stated, her voice echoing coldly off the steel walls.
May you like
Max blinked, momentarily confused. "Ma'am?"
"The disgraced CFO died in a tragic car accident in the industrial district tonight, along with two unidentified assailants," Victoria clarified, her gaze fixed entirely on Jasper. "Scrub his biometric data from the municipal servers. Erase his parole file. Wipe him off the grid."
