Chapter 4 - The Counter-Infiltration
Word count: ~1,500 words
I instructed Marcus to deploy a cellular signal jammer across the entire industrial estate. Within seconds, every mobile phone inside the warehouse lost connection to the outside world.
Then, I took my phone and sent a local Bluetooth broadcast message directly to Gabriel Vance’s encrypted phone—a custom protocol my firm used for executive communications.
Inside the warehouse, Gabriel’s phone chimed. He pulled it out, frowning as he read the screen.
The message read: “Looking for this, Gabriel? Check the glove box of Carmen’s SUV. You have ten minutes before the Swiss authorities lock the master account forever.”
Through the drone camera, I watched Gabriel’s expression shift from frustration to wild, desperate greed.
"What is it?!" Carmen demanded, watching Gabriel run toward the door.
"The key!" Gabriel yelled back. "The kid must have dropped it in your car when you dragged her in! Stay here with Sara!"
Gabriel threw open the sheet-metal door and stepped out into the murky afternoon light, heading straight for Carmen’s parked SUV.
The moment he rounded the corner of the building, out of sight from the warehouse windows, two of Marcus’s tactical operatives stepped silently from the shadows behind him.
Before Gabriel could even draw his handgun, a stun baton struck him across the back of his neck. He collapsed onto the gravel without uttering a single sound. Within five seconds, he was zip-tied, gagged, and dragged into the back of Marcus’s black van.
I stepped out of my maintenance vehicle and walked up to the van.
Gabriel lay on the floor, his eyes wide with panic as he looked up at me.
I leaned down, resting my hands on my knees, staring into the eyes of the ghost who had tried to steal my life.
"Hello, Gabriel," I said softly. "You look remarkably healthy for a man who died in Switzerland eight years ago."
Gabriel thrashed against his bonds, muffled curses spewing behind his duct tape.
"Marcus," I said without looking back. "Strip him of his clothes, take his phone, and retrieve his biometric data. Then place him in the secondary containment unit."
"What about Doña Carmen?" Marcus asked.
"She’s mine," I said.
I picked up Gabriel’s silver handgun, cleared the chamber to ensure it was functional, reinserted the magazine, and slid it into the back of my belt.
Then I picked up the titanium cryptographic key, turned to the warehouse, and walked toward the rusted sheet-metal gate.
Inside, Doña Carmen was pacing back and forth, growing increasingly anxious as the minutes ticked by.
"Gabriel?!" she called out, stepping toward the door. "What’s taking so long?! Did you find it?!"
I pushed the metal door open. The rusted hinges shrieked in the silence.
Carmen spun around, expecting to see her accomplice.
Instead, she found me standing in the doorway, framed by the grey afternoon light, wearing my dark suit with my hands resting calmly in my pockets.
Carmen’s face turned the color of chalk. Her jaw dropped, her breath catching in her throat as if she had swallowed glass.
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"Julian...?" she choked out, stepping backward until her calf hit the wooden desk. "You... you were supposed to be on a plane to Zurich..."
"Plans changed, Carmen," I said smoothly, stepping into the warehouse and letting the heavy iron gate swing shut behind me. "Technical failure. Turns out... there was a glitch in the system."
