Chapter 17 - Cornered
"Agent Miller, move your team in now!" Arthur yelled into his radio as I strode into the open courtyard of the storage facility.
The gravel crunched loudly under my boots. Thorne, Marcus, and Mark all snapped their heads toward me simultaneously.
"Maya?" Mark gasped, his voice cracking with embarrassment and fear. "Get out of here! They're going to kill us both!"
"Shut up, Mark," I said, stopping ten paces away from them in the pounding rain. "You ran away like a coward a year ago, and you're still acting like one."
Julian Thorne raised an eyebrow, adjusting his damp coat collar. "Miss Lin. Bold of you to show up. Though I suppose it saves my men the trouble of hunting you down."
"You aren't hunting anyone tonight, Thorne," I said, raising my right hand, which held a small black remote device. "Marcus, you thought you were downloading private ledger codes from my key envelope. What you actually downloaded was a self-executing forensic malware package into your personal cloud storage the second your phone connected to Thorne’s network."
Marcus’s phone in his pocket began to chime rapidly—a high-pitched, frantic series of error tones.
He pulled it out, his eyes widening in absolute horror as lines of text scrolled rapidly across his screen. "What... what did you do?!"
"I mapped your entire server bridge," I said evenly. "Every dollar you siphoned from Mark, every offshore transfer you attributed to my name, and every bribe Thorne paid you—it’s all currently being mirrored to the FBI Financial Crimes database in real-time."
Thorne’s arrogant posture evaporated. His face darkened into a portrait of absolute fury. "Kill the connection! Marcus, turn the phone off!"
"It’s too late, Thorne," Agent Miller’s voice boomed over a bullhorn as three dark law enforcement SUVs swept into the storage yard, blinding searchlights cutting through the rain. "FBI! Drop your weapons! Hands where we can see them!"
Mark dropped his gun into the mud, sinking to his knees with his hands behind his head, weeping uncontrollably.
Marcus panicked. He turned and tried to sprint into the dark alley between the storage bays, but two armed federal agents stepped out from the shadows, blocking his path and forcing him to the ground in handcuffs.
Julian Thorne stood alone in the glare of the FBI searchlights. He looked at me with cold, venomous hatred.
May you like
"You think you’ve won, little girl?" Thorne spat softly. "I have lawyers who will have me out on bail before breakfast. You built nothing."
"I built a life you couldn't tear down," I said, stepping right up to him as Agent Miller placed him in heavy wrist restraints. "And unlike you, Thorne... I don't owe anyone anything."
