Chapter 19 - Checkmate, Again
Forty-eight hours later, I sat in a sterile, underground conference room at the FBI Field Office in D.C.
Lily was upstairs in a secure playroom, guarded by four agents. Across the table from me sat Agent Harrison, whose left arm was in a sling, and a woman introduced as Deputy Director Reynolds.
"We want to put you and your daughter into the Witness Protection Program," Reynolds said, sliding a thick folder across the table. "New names, new social security numbers. We will relocate you to a secure state. The cartel’s hit on you is active, Daniel. They want blood for the hundred million dollars you locked up."
I didn't touch the folder.
"Witness protection means looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life," I said, my voice eerily calm. "It means Lily jumping at every loud noise. The Sinaloa cartel has a reach that extends into federal prisons. You can't guarantee our safety."
"It's the best option we have," Harrison said grimly.
"No, it's not," I replied, pulling a small, folded piece of paper from my pocket. "I didn't give you everything on that USB drive."
Reynolds narrowed her eyes. "What are you talking about?"
"Anna was brilliant," I explained. "She didn't just find the ledger; she found the backdoors Michael built into the cartel's financial routing software. They routed everything through Evelyn’s charity to make it look legitimate, but the master key to their global network is on a separate partition of the drive. The password to unlock it isn't LilyGrace2018. It's this."
I slid the folded paper across the table. Reynolds opened it. It was a string of thirty-two alphanumeric characters.
"If your cyber division uses this, you won't just seize a hundred million," I said, leaning forward. "You will gain access to the cartel's entire offshore network. Three billion dollars. And you'll have the GPS coordinates of every single shell company and safehouse they operate worldwide."
Reynolds stared at the paper, stunned. "If this is real, Daniel... this is the biggest bust in the history of the agency. The DEA and CIA will dismantle their entire leadership structure in a week. The cartel won't just be crippled; they will be eradicated."
"Exactly," I said. "They won't have the time or the resources to hunt a single father from the suburbs, because they'll be fighting a global war on multiple fronts. But I want two things in return."
"Name them," Reynolds said immediately.
"First, I want Evelyn Hart to be transferred to the maximum-security wing at ADX Florence. No country club prison. I want her in a concrete box for twenty-three hours a day. I want her to know she will never see the sky again."
"Done," Harrison nodded. "She's facing multiple life sentences anyway. What's the second?"
"I want the three million dollars from Lily's trust fund released and transferred to a secure account under our new identities. It was Anna's money, earned legally before Evelyn corrupted the charity. It belongs to my daughter."
Reynolds looked at Harrison, then back at me. "I can authorize the unfreezing of those specific funds. Consider it done."
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I stood up from the table. For the first time in two years, the crushing weight on my chest lifted. I had burned the woman who killed my wife. I had burned the cartel that threatened my daughter.
"Go dismantle an empire," I said.
