Chapter 4 - Zero PrivilegeForty-Eight Hours Later.
The room was aggressively white.
No windows. No clocks. No shadows. Just bright, buzzing fluorescent lights, stainless steel walls, and an aluminum table bolted to the floor.
Richard sat shivering in an orange jumpsuit. The silk shirts, the Rolex, the custom Italian leather shoes—all stripped away, replaced by the humiliating, sterile garments of a ghost-site detainee. He hadn't slept. He hadn't been allowed to.
Every time he closed his eyes, heavy metal music blared through hidden speakers, or the temperature in the room dropped ten degrees.
The heavy steel door unlocked with a loud, electronic clack.
Richard jolted awake, his bloodshot eyes darting toward the entrance.
I walked in.
I was wearing a simple, dark suit. I carried no weapons. I didn't need to. I pulled out the steel chair opposite him and sat down. I placed a single, blue paper folder on the table between us.
For a long moment, neither of us spoke.
"Where am I?" Richard croaked. His throat was dry, his voice a pathetic rasp.
"You are nowhere," I replied calmly. "Geographically speaking, you don't have a location. Legally speaking, you haven't been seen since Sunday afternoon."
Richard swallowed hard, his eyes glued to the blue folder.
"My mother..." he whispered.
"She signed a full confession," I said, leaning back in my chair. "She detailed every time you hit my daughter. She detailed the bribes to Chief Miller. She even told us about the offshore accounts in the Caymans. In exchange, she gets to live out the rest of her life in a minimum-security federal facility, scrubbing toilets."
Richard buried his face in his hands. "You... who are you? You're just a mechanic. You live in a cheap house. You drive a truck!"
"I was a mechanic for fifteen years," I agreed, steepling my fingers. "Because fifteen years ago, my wife died, and I had a little girl to raise. I promised my wife I would leave my old life behind. I buried my clearances. I buried my contacts. I learned how to change oil and fix transmissions so I could be a father."
I leaned forward, my voice dropping to a deadly whisper.
"But before that, Richard... I hunted monsters for the United States Government. Men who toppled countries. Men who trafficked weapons. Men who made you look like a petty shoplifter."
Richard stared at me, sheer terror radiating from his pale face.
"I opened the folder on the table. Inside were three pieces of paper.
"This," I said, tapping the first page, "is a full, irrevocable annulment of your marriage to Lily. She gets everything. Your legit accounts, the estate property, your trust fund. All of it."
I tapped the second page.
"This is your signed confession to federal racketeering, wire fraud, bribery of public officials, and domestic terrorism."
"Terrorism?" Richard choked out. "I'm a real estate developer!"
"You bribed local government officials using funds funneled through a shell company tied to an overseas cartel," I lied smoothly. The cartel part was fabricated, but in this room, reality was whatever I said it was. "That triggers the Patriot Act. Which means you are an enemy combatant."
I slid a pen across the aluminum table.
"Sign them."
Richard looked at the pen as if it were a rattlesnake. "And if I do? Do I go to prison?"
"If you sign them," I said softly, "you get to see daylight again. You will go to a federal supermax facility. You will be placed in solitary confinement for the rest of your natural life. You will eat your meals through a slot in the door. But you will breathe."
I paused, letting the silence hang in the freezing air.
"If you don't sign them... I walk out that door. The cameras turn off. And Echo-Actual comes in here to ask you questions for the next month."
Richard looked up at me. He was broken. The billionaire ego had been entirely hollowed out, leaving nothing but a terrified, pathetic little boy.
His trembling hand reached out and picked up the pen.
He signed his name on the documents.
I took the folder, closed it, and stood up.
"Arthur, wait," Richard pleaded, tears finally spilling over his cheeks. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I loved her..."
I stopped at the heavy steel door. I didn't look back at him.
May you like
"If you ever say her name again," I promised into the sterile air, "I will come back to whatever cell they put you in, and I will finish what I started."
I knocked twice on the door. It opened, and I stepped out, leaving Richard Vance in the dark.
Related Stories
