CHAPTER 5: Breaking the Vault
By 3:00 AM, Mara and Julian were holed up in a motel room on the edge of the county line. The twins were still secure at the county hospital under the watchful eye of Ruiz, who had refused to comply with IA’s illegal orders, risking his own career to protect the kids.
"If we want to take down Arthur Vance, we can't just show the kids to a judge," Mara said, staring at a map of the harbor layout pinned to the wall. "My father owns half the judiciary in this state. We need the manifest. We need the digital ledger that links the Vance Corporation directly to the financial accounts of the overseas buyers."
"That ledger will be encrypted on a closed-circuit server inside the Vance Maritime Headquarters at Pier 14," Julian said, shaking his head. "It's a suicide mission, Mara. Security there is tight, and they're on high alert because of you."
"I know the layout," Mara said softly. "I used to go there every Saturday when I was a kid to have lunch with my dad. Before I knew what he really was."
Two hours later, disguised in the heavy canvas jackets of dock workers, Mara and Julian slipped past the outer perimeter of Pier 14. The fog was thick, rolling off the black ocean water, providing the perfect cover.
They breached the server room using an old security bypass code Mara had memorized years ago—a code her father had never bothered to change because he believed his own daughter was too weak to ever use it against him.
Inside the chilled, humming server room, Julian plugged his decryption device into the main terminal. "This is it. Downloading the entire financial history of the relocation division. Look at these names, Mara... hundreds of children. All logged as 'surplus inventory.'"
"Hurry, Julian," Mara urged, keeping her eyes on the security monitors.
On the screen, she saw a convoy of black cars arriving at the pier. Arthur Vance stepped out, accompanied by Vivian and a dozen armed mercenaries. They weren't waiting for dawn; they were moving the timeline up.
"Download complete," Julian gasped, pulling the drive.
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Before they could move, the server room doors hissed open. Arthur Vance stood there, a silenced pistol in his hand, his eyes burning with absolute hatred.
"You just couldn't let it go, could you, Mara?" her father whispered. "You always had to be the righteous one. Well, righteousness doesn't pay the bills. It doesn't build empires."
