Chapter 6 - The Devil's BargainMarcus demanded the ledger.
Sophie refused.
“You're making a mistake,” he warned.
“No,” she replied. “My mistake was believing my father was finished.”
She smashed a nearby light, plunged the archive into darkness, and escaped through an emergency passage she remembered from childhood.
But she knew something now.
The government could be compromised.
The courts could be compromised.
Even prison officials could be compromised.
She needed someone Arthur couldn't intimidate.
Someone who had already survived him.
That person was Julian Croft.
Five years earlier, Julian had been one of Wall Street's most promising hedge-fund managers.
Arthur had destroyed him.
A fabricated insider-trading case had sent Julian to prison.
When Julian emerged three years later, his career was gone.
His reputation was gone.
His trust in the system was gone.
He had built something new instead—a private cyber-intelligence operation hidden inside a fortified Brooklyn loft.
When Sophie arrived, Julian aimed a handgun at her.
“You have a lot of nerve coming here.”
She placed the ledger on his desk.
“My father is running his empire from prison.”
Julian studied her.
Then he opened the ledger.
Hours later, his expression changed.
“This isn't just money laundering.”
“What is it?”
“A market attack.”
Arthur was preparing to manipulate the stock prices of several major pharmaceutical companies, generating billions through hidden accounts.
And he needed one final authorization.
His biometric signature.
“Friday,” Julian said.
Sophie looked at him.
“What happens Friday?”
“If Arthur succeeds, he gets the money he needs to disappear forever.”
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Sophie closed her fists.
“Then Friday never happens.”
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