Chapter 22 - The Countermeasure
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We emerged from the tunnels three blocks away, blending into the rainy night just as the sirens of responding police cruisers wailed in the distance, converging on our ruined home. We relocated to a secure, off-the-grid safehouse Vincent maintained in the industrial district.
The small apartment was sparsely furnished, smelling of stale dust and old coffee.
Evelyn sat on a faded sofa, holding Lily’s hand tightly. I paced the floor, the adrenaline slowly leaving my system, replaced by a cold, calculating resolve.
"Thorne crossed the line," Vincent said, setting his laptop on a folding table. "He attacked your home. The truce is broken, Dominic. You have to end him."
"I will end him," I said, staring out the rain-streaked window. "But I won't do it with a bullet. If I kill him, I validate his belief that power only comes from violence. I prove that the Ghost is still the only way to rule."
"Then how do we stop him?" Lily asked, her voice steady despite the trauma of the night. "He has an army. We have a hard drive."
"We use the hard drive," Evelyn said, her eyes flashing with determination. "Dominic is right. We don't fight a cartel boss with guns. We fight him with sunlight."
I turned to Lily. "Is the article ready?"
"It’s written," Lily nodded. "But without independent verification of these bank accounts, my editor won't publish it. He’ll say the data could be fabricated."
"Then we verify it," I said, looking at Vincent. "I need you to hack into the central server of the Cayman Island bank that holds his primary slush fund. We trigger a massive, undeniable transfer that alerts international financial authorities. We make the data undeniable."
"Hacking a Swiss-level offshore bank will take days," Vincent argued. "We don't have days. Thorne is hunting us right now."
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"I know a backdoor," I said quietly. "It’s the same backdoor I built into the system fifteen years ago. Thorne copied my playbook, which means he copied my vulnerabilities."
Vincent smiled, cracking his knuckles. "Give me the access codes, boss. Let’s drain the swamp."
