The sound of my arm breaking was louder than the applause had been. Seconds earlier, I’d been standing beside General Robert Hayes after he briefly lost his balance near the stage. I caught his elbow instinctively, holding him steady before he could fall.

Five weeks later.

The tropical sun burned brightly over Nassau, but inside a luxury penthouse overlooking the marina, Jason Vance was sweating profusely.

He sat on a leather sofa surrounded by empty whiskey bottles, frantically typing on a encrypted laptop. His eight million dollars in cryptocurrency had suddenly been frozen by the international banking compliance authority following a federal freezing order initiated by General Hayes’s task force.

A loud knock echoed against his front door.

Jason jumped up, spilling his drink across the rug. He grabbed a handgun from the coffee table and crept toward the door, looking through the security peephole.

Standing in the hallway was a tall, sharp-looking woman in a cream linen suit, holding a leather folder.

It was Sarah Lin.

Jason threw the door open, pointing the gun directly at her chest. “How the hell did you find me?!”

Sarah didn't even blink. She casually pushed the barrel of the gun aside with two fingers, stepping past him into the air-conditioned foyer.

“Put the gun away, Jason,” Sarah said calmly, walking over to the bar and pouring herself a glass of sparkling water. “Bahamian police have already surrounded the building. If you fire that weapon, you’ll be in a local prison before sunset, and trust me, Nassau facilities are far less comfortable than federal custody in North Carolina.”

Jason’s hands shook as he slowly lowered the firearm. “What do you want?”

“I’m giving you a choice,” Sarah said, placing a legal document on the marble counter. “Your brother Ethan is currently telling the FBI that you were the sole operator who arranged the hardware sales to Eastern Europe. He’s putting everything on you to save his own skin.”

“That lying bastard!” Jason screamed, his face twisting in rage. “It was his idea! He handled the buyers! I just ran the shell accounts!”

“We know,” Sarah smiled thinly. “Which is why Captain Vance sent me here with an offer.”

Jason stared at her, suspicious. “Maya sent you? Why would she help me?”

“Maya isn't helping you, Jason,” Sarah said coldly. “She’s giving you an opportunity to survive. Sign this affidavit detailing Ethan’s full involvement in the treason scheme, hand over the private keys to the offshore accounts, and the prosecution will agree to recommend a reduced fifteen-year sentence instead of life without parole.”

Jason fell back into a chair, breathing heavily. “Fifteen years...”

“Ethan gave you up, Jason,” Sarah reminded him, leaning down. “Your mother is facing twenty years for witness tampering. Your uncle is going to prison. The Vance family empire is dead. The only question left is whether you want to sink with Ethan or give us the hammer to crush him.”

Jason looked at the affidavit, then at his useless, frozen laptop. The illusion of his family’s invincibility had completely shattered.