Chapter 6 - The Liquidation of the Legacy
Julian didn't step fully into the lab. He stayed near the door, his eyes darting toward the security cameras in the corners of the concrete ceiling, his fingers twitching against the handle of his ruggedized laptop.
"The state attorney has the bank records, Audrey," he said, his voice dropping into a harsh, desperate whisper. "Arthur is out of his mind. He’s back at the house, drinking, loading that old hunting rifle he keeps in the study. He says he’s going to settle the account with you before the grand jury meets on Tuesday."
"And where are you going, Julian?" I asked, not moving an inch from the console. "Newark? Or straight to the airport?"
Julian flinched, his eyes widening as he realized I already knew about his escape vector. "I didn't want to forge those signatures, Audrey. You have to believe me. Arthur told me that if I didn't get the tuition money, the logistics company would default on the warehouse lease, and the bank would seize the cars. He said you were a girl—that you could always find a husband or a scholarship to pay for your stuff, but I had to protect the name."
"The name is currently trending number two on Twitter under the hashtag #VanceFraud," Paige barked from the stool, her knuckles still white where she was holding the steel wrench. "So great job protecting the brand, Jules."
"Shut up, Paige!" Julian snapped, his old arrogance flaring for a brief, ugly second before dying back down into panic. He looked back at me, his eyes wide and pleading. "Look, Audrey... I have the drone source code here. The complete navigation matrix your group built. I know you put a kill-switch in it. I tried to run the emulation on my server and the registry locked up."
He set the laptop down on the edge of the nearest workbench, sliding it toward me with a slow, desperate movement. "I’ll give you the encryption keys to Arthur’s private safe in Scarsdale. The real ledger. The one that shows the cash kickbacks he’s been taking from the port authority drivers for five years. It’s enough to put him away for ten years and keep the state from seizing the house. Just clear the kill-switch on this code so I can close the deal with the Newark group. I need the cash to get out of the country."
I walked slowly over to the workbench, looking down at the screen of his laptop. The emulation window was blinking with a bright red warning label: Domain Violation. System Isolated.
"You really don't understand engineering, do you, Julian?" I said softly, my voice carrying a profound, bone-deep pity that cut sharper than any insult. "You think code is just a commodity you can steal and sell to a fence in New Jersey. You think my life was just an asset you could liquidate to keep your BMW filled with gas."
I reached out, my finger pressing a single key on his keyboard. The red warning label vanished, replaced by a clean, white screen displaying a real-time GPS map of the Hudson Valley area. A bright green dot was pulsing directly over our current location, and a secondary blue dot was moving fast up the Taconic State Parkway, heading straight toward the university.
"What is that?" Julian asked, his breath hitching.
"That blue dot is Arthur’s personal vehicle, Julian," I said, looking up to meet his eyes. "The one with the recalled steering column. I activated the remote vehicle diagnostics through the company server ten minutes ago. He’s coming here. He thinks you’re here to help him recover the data. He doesn't know you’re trying to sell it out from under him."
Julian’s face went completely grey. He reached for the laptop, but I slammed the lid down, my hand resting flat against the matte-black plastic.
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"The Newark group isn't coming to buy your code, brother," I whispered, the sound of a distant, high-powered engine echoing from the main campus drive outside the high windows. "Marcus Vance contacted their legal representative two hours ago. They traded your location for immunity on their tax evasion charges. You aren't the hunter anymore, Julian. You’re the bait."
The heavy steel doors of the lab pavilion suddenly rattled as the main building alarms began to scream—a high, rhythmic wail that signaled a security breach at the front gates.
