CHAPTER 6: The Cipher in the Gold
The failed assassination attempt made national headlines. "NIGHT OF TERROR AT HAWTHORNE MANOR," the news anchors cried.
But Maya wasn't hiding. She was going on the offensive.
Under the heavy guard of the military police, Maya, Julian, and Colonel Vance flew to a secure underground government facility in Washington, D.C. Maya sat at a steel table in the center of a glass-walled cyber-room, the pendant resting beneath a multi-million-dollar laser scanner.
"The man who attacked your house was a hired gun," Vance explained, pointing to a digital monitor. "But we traced the money that paid him. It came from a shell corporation owned by Marcus Thorne."
Julian inhaled sharply. "Thorne? The CEO of Global Apex? He's untouchable. He basically owns half the senators in the country."
"He was untouchable," Maya corrected, her voice cold and sharp. She looked at the cyber-technician. "Scan the pendant. Let's see what my father died to protect."
The technician activated the laser. On the giant screen above them, the microscopic scratches on the back of the cheap metal pendant were magnified ten thousand times.
They weren't scratches at all. They were lines of micro-engraved binary code.
The computer hummed as it decrypted the file. Suddenly, the screen exploded with data. Bank account numbers. Offshore shell companies. Video files. Audio recordings.
General Alexander Hawthorne had been a ghost in the machine. He had spent his final years secretly tapping the phones of the corrupt defense contractors.
One audio file began to play loudly in the room. It was unmistakably the arrogant, gravelly voice of Marcus Thorne.
Voice on recording: "General Hawthorne is becoming a problem. He won't take the bribe. The military contracts are worth fifty billion. I don't care if he has a wife and a kid. Make the brakes on his convoy fail. Make it look like an accident. And if the kid survives... find her. Erase the whole bloodline."
The room fell dead silent. The evidence was irrefutable. It was a signed confession to murder, treason, and domestic terrorism.
Maya stood up. Her eyes were completely dry. She didn't feel sorrow anymore; she felt the absolute, crushing weight of justice.
"Colonel Vance," Maya said, turning to the veteran soldier.
"Yes, ma'am?" Vance replied, standing at attention. He no longer saw a civilian; he saw her father's daughter.
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"I don't want Marcus Thorne arrested in his sleep," Maya ordered, her voice ringing with absolute authority. "I want it done in public. I want him stripped of everything he has, in front of the whole world. I want him to look at the orphan he tried to erase, right before he loses his empire."
Vance smiled, a dangerous, wolfish grin. "Consider it done."
