Chapter 7 - The Digital Counter-Strike
“Can you override it?” Nathan demanded, stepping up behind Miller and resting a hand on the edge of the conference table.
“They’re using an automated counter-script,” Miller said, his fingers hammering against the keyboard with intense speed. Beads of sweat had formed on his forehead. “If I don't sever the connection right now, they’ll trace our IP address back to Cole Urban Holdings and lock down the entire target directory before we can download the clinical trial logs.”
“Don't sever it,” Nathan ordered sharply.
“Mr. Cole, if they trace this—”
“Route the download through the secondary proxy servers in Zurich and Singapore,” Nathan interrupted, his voice cutting through any hesitation. “Split the data packet into three streams and mirror the destination drive locally before they can execute the purge command.”
Miller stared at Nathan for a fraction of a second, then nodded briskly. “Executing split-stream mirror now!”
The red warning dialog box on the monitor flickered, turned amber, and then suddenly shifted to a steady, glowing blue.
DOWNLOAD PROGRESS: 45%... 70%... 90%... 100%.
TRANSFER COMPLETE. 14.2 GIGABYTES SECURED.
Miller let out a long, audible breath and leaned back in his ergonomic chair. “That was entirely too close. If we had waited ten more seconds, they would have wiped the server clean.”
Emily slumped down into a leather chair beside the table, her hands trembling as she covered her face. For the first time in months, the crushing weight of fear and isolation seemed to lift slightly from her shoulders.
“We have it,” she whispered through her fingers. “We actually have it.”
Nathan walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the snow-covered skyline of Chicago. The twenty-three million dollar acquisition contract was still sitting on his desk in the other room, waiting for his signature. But the landscape of his business empire had fundamentally shifted in less than twenty-four hours.
“Mrs. Gable,” Nathan called out without turning around.
“Yes, Mr. Cole?” his assistant answered promptly from her desk outside.
“Contact District Attorney Vance's office. Not Marcus Vance my lawyer—his cousin, Thomas Vance, the federal prosecutor handling healthcare fraud in the Northern District of Illinois.”
“Right away, sir. What shall I tell him?”
“Tell him that Cole Urban Holdings has come into possession of complete, unedited documentation regarding systemic financial embezzlement and clinical trial falsification at St. Matthew’s Hospital,” Nathan said, his voice hard and uncompromising. “And tell him we are prepared to submit the entire data archive to a federal grand jury first thing tomorrow morning.”
Emily looked up from her chair, her eyes wide with astonishment. “You’re handing it directly to the federal prosecutors?”
“I told you, Emily,” Nathan turned around, walking slowly back toward the conference table. “When you play a high-stakes game, you don't negotiate with criminals. You checkmate them.”
May you like
Before Mrs. Gable could place the call, the door to the private office buzzed sharply.
Samuel stepped inside, looking slightly ruffled. “Mr. Cole, you have uninvited visitors in the lobby. Arthur Sterling and two members of the St. Matthew’s board of directors just came up the private elevator. They demand to speak with you immediately.”
