Chapter 56 - The Dead-Man's Switch
Elias choked, his hands futilely clawing at Julian’s arm. Below them, the city lights blurred in the rain.
"Go ahead," Elias wheezed, blood trickling from his nose. "Kill me. It changes nothing."
"I am not going to kill you, Elias," Julian said, his voice a low, terrifying whisper. "Because dead men can't deliver a message."
Julian reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out a small, encrypted flash drive. He held it up in front of Elias’s face.
"While I was in the Cayman node, scrambling your money, I also downloaded your entire shadow ledger. I have the names of every corrupt politician, every illegal arms deal, every assassination order The Directorate has authorized for the last twenty years."
Elias’s eyes widened in sheer panic.
"I have uploaded this data to an automated dead-man's switch," Julian continued coldly. "It is tied directly to my biometric vitals, and to Lily's. If my heart stops, if her heart stops, or if I don't enter a specific passcode every forty-eight hours... this drive automatically emails its contents to every major news outlet, intelligence agency, and rival syndicate on the planet."
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"You wouldn't," Elias gasped. "It would cause global chaos."
"I am a father," Julian said softly. "I don't care about the world. I care about my daughter. If you ever come near my family again, if you even look in our direction, I will burn The Directorate to the ground and dance in the ashes."
