Chapter 12
Z
"Julian Vance isn't listed in any of the military intelligence files," Ethan said, pulling up a high-resolution photo of a young man in a tailored suit on his encrypted tablet. "He’s been living under a false identity as a venture capitalist in Atlanta."
"He was the clean face of the operation," I realized, analyzing the data packets Julian was pulling from our home network. "While his sister controlled the legal side and his father handled the military connections, Julian was running the actual offshore accounts. He’s trying to scrub his own paper trail using the data Darren stole from my drive."
"If he wipes those offshore accounts, the federal prosecutors won't have enough evidence to convict General Vance," Ethan said, reaching for his sidearm. "We need to stop that download before it finishes."
"No guns this time," I said, shutting down my terminal and grabbing my laptop. "Julian is smart, but he’s arrogant. He thinks he’s playing a game of chess against amateur auditors. I'm going to poison his stream."
We drove down to the financial district in silence, the city bustling with everyday traffic, completely unaware of the shadow war unfolding beneath its surface. Julian’s high-rise overlooked the river, a fortress of steel and glass with tight security protocols.
We parked two blocks away. I opened my laptop, connected to the high-rise’s public Wi-Fi network, and deployed a custom forensic worm directly into the outgoing data packet stream Julian was accessing.
"What does the worm do?" Ethan asked, watching the lines of green code scroll across my monitor.
"It doesn't just block his download," I smiled faintly. "It reverses the data flow. While he thinks he’s wiping his offshore records, my code is injecting every piece of evidence from my father’s silver flash drive directly into his private cloud drive, tagging it with his personal digital signature."
Suddenly, my screen flickered red.
WARNING: SYSTEM COUNTER-MEASURE ENGAGED
A text prompt popped up on my screen, typing itself out in real time:
Nice try, Claire. But I built this system. Look out your driver's side window.
Ethan and I both turned instantly.
May you like
Standing on the sidewalk ten yards away, holding a smartphone and surrounded by three large men in civilian clothes, was Julian Vance. He offered a mocking wave before entering a sleek black sedan that slammed into gear and sped into traffic.
"He dragged us out here on purpose," Ethan growled, slamming the truck into drive and stomping on the gas pedal. "He wanted us away from the house!"
