Chapter 37 - The Convergence at the Harbor
Ten minutes later, the dull roar of an engine broke the silence of the harbor. A beat-up sedan careened around the corner of the rusted grain silo, its headlights cutting sharply through the mist before cutting off entirely.
A man in a rumpled tweed jacket and wire-rimmed glasses stepped out, shielding his face from the cold coastal wind as he hurried toward our pickup truck. It was Marcus. He looked remarkably like Liam, though sharper around the eyes, carrying the cynical, restless energy of an investigative journalist who had spent too many nights sleeping on office floors.
The passenger door of our truck swung open, and Marcus slid in, bringing a rush of damp, salty air into the cab.
"Jesus, Liam," Marcus breathed, his eyes wide as he looked between his cousin and me. "Your face looks like you went ten rounds with a heavy bag. And the entire corporate network is screaming right now—board members are in full panic mode because the master server at the estate just dropped offline."
"Drop the dramatics, Marcus, and look at the screen," Liam said, handing over the small black flash drive without hesitation.
Marcus pulled a battered, ruggedized laptop from his satchel, plugged the drive in, and cracked open the encryptions with a few rapid, practiced keystrokes of his terminal.
The screen flickered, casting a pale green glow over his intense, focused features. Lines of financial code, offshore routing manifests, and encrypted internal memos scrolled past at blinding speed. Marcus stopped on a primary index file, his breath catching in his throat.
"My God," Marcus whispered, leaning closer to the screen. "It's all here. The Kroll acquisition, the manipulated bankruptcy filings of the Sterling Trust, the political bribes... this isn't just a corporate scandal, Liam. This is a RICO case. My editors at the *Review* can have this live on the wire within ten minutes. By noon, federal marshals will have warrants for Arthur’s arrest."
"Do it," I said, leaning forward from the back seat, my voice hard and resolute. "Publish it all."
Marcus looked up from the screen, his gaze meeting mine with a flicker of deep respect. "You're Clara Sterling, aren't you? Your father was a good man, Clara. What Arthur did to his estate was criminal."
"Let's make sure he pays for it," Liam added coldly.
Marcus nodded once, his fingers flying across the keyboard with renewed fury. A progress bar appeared on the screen, crawling steadily toward completion as the massive data packet uploaded to an encrypted, offshore publishing server that couldn't be intercepted by Vance International's corporate firewalls.
*Upload complete.*
Marcus slammed the laptop shut. "It's out. The wire services are picking it up automatically. By the time the markets open this morning, Vance International's stock is going to hit absolute zero."
May you like
Just as the words left his mouth, the quiet of the harbor was shattered by the screech of heavy tires.
***
