Chapter 44
The reality of Arthur Vance’s murder sent shockwaves through the Harper family. They had spent the last twelve months believing the dragon was entirely slain, only to discover they had merely chopped off one head. Nathan gathered everyone in the living room, drawing the heavy curtains closed despite it being mid-morning. The house, which had felt like a sanctuary just an hour ago, suddenly felt like a highly visible target.
"If Vance was murdered in federal custody, that means the corruption extends far beyond local politicians and cartel bosses," Michael noted, pacing the length of the room with a predatory restlessness. "Someone with federal clearance had to order that hit, bypass the security cameras, and plant the drive."
"And they are terrified of what the Foundation knows," Claire added, sitting next to Emily to offer the younger girl some comfort. "The people on our registry... they are former accountants, shell company directors, low-level enforcers. They are the people who know exactly where the bodies are buried."
"We need to go on the offensive," Nathan declared, his jaw set in a hard, uncompromising line. "We cannot sit here and wait for them to breach our offline servers or send a physical team. Ethan, I need you to analyze the digital footprint of the attack. Find out exactly which offshore server Vance’s dead-man switch communicated with."
"I'm already on it," Ethan said, pulling out a hardened military-grade laptop from his backpack. "But if it's a government-level proxy, it's going to be buried beneath thousands of false IP addresses. It will take time."
"Take all the time you need, but find it," Nathan instructed. He turned to Michael. "You and I are going to the FBI field office to meet with Sarah. If Vance swallowed a drive, there might be physical evidence left on the hardware. A manufacturer's mark, a custom encryption key. Something we can track."
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Claire stood up, her expression fierce and determined. "I am going to the Foundation headquarters. If they tried to breach us digitally, they might try to breach us physically to steal the physical hard drives. I need to coordinate with our private security teams and lock the building down entirely."
"Be careful," Nathan said, pulling her close and kissing her forehead. "The game just changed, Claire."
