Chapter 18 - The Fall of the House of VanceThe Jeep engine screamed as we hit the paved highway, pushing ninety miles an hour.
I stared at the burner phone in my hand.
00:03:14.
"We have to trigger it now," I said to David. "If Evelyn's accounts are frozen, her mercenaries might abandon her. They fight for cash, not loyalty."
"Do it," David grunted, swerving to avoid a stray coyote.
I opened the encryption app. A prompt appeared, asking for my thumbprint to delay the data dump. I bypassed it, selecting the manual override.
EXECUTE DATA DUMP?
I pressed YES.
A green loading bar flashed across the screen, hitting 100% in a matter of seconds.
"It's done," I breathed.
In the back seat, Taylor began to cry. Not silent, dignified tears, but loud, ugly, gasping sobs. It was the sound of a woman mourning the only thing she had ever truly loved: her wealth, her status, her inherited power.
Ten miles ahead of us, Evelyn’s motorcade was racing toward the diner. I pulled up the local news scanner on the burner phone.
It didn't take long. Five minutes later, the scanner exploded with chatter.
"...massive data leak implicating Crestwood CEO Evelyn Vance in multiple federal crimes, including racketeering, bribery, and conspiracy to commit murder..."
"...FBI field agents are currently raiding the Vance estate..."
"...SEC has initiated an emergency freeze on all Vance corporate assets pending investigation..."
David laughed, a harsh, barking sound. "It's hitting the wire! She's bleeding out, Mark."
I grabbed the police scanner radio from the dashboard. Evelyn's private security channel was absolute chaos.
"Alpha Team, we just got a call from our bank! Our retainers are bouncing!" one of the mercenaries yelled over the radio.
"Evelyn, what the hell is going on? The news is saying the feds are raiding the compound!" another demanded.
Then, Evelyn's voice cut through the panic. It was no longer the smooth, calculated tone of a billionaire matriarch. It was the frantic, venomous hiss of a cornered rattlesnake.
"Anyone who deserts me now dies! The money is fine! Get to the diner! Secure the child! The child is the key to the Trust!"
She knew. Evelyn knew that with her own empire crumbling, the only asset left in the world with any value was the Lily Crestwood Trust. If she controlled Lily, she controlled the billions locked away in that bloodline.
"She's not giving up," I said, drawing my pistol and checking the magazine. "She's going to take Lily hostage."
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"Not on my watch," David growled, the neon sign of the Starlite Motel & Diner finally appearing on the horizon, glowing like a beacon in the dark.
But Evelyn’s black SUVs were already pulling into the parking lot.
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