Chapter 4 - Confessions in the Dark
Harrington stared at the glowing monitor, then back at Ethan. For a brief second, a desperate, feral look crossed the manager's face. His hand twitched toward the master execution key on the keyboard—a command designed to initiate a complete magnetic wipe of the hard drives.
Before Harrington’s finger could press the button, Marcus lunged across the room with astonishing speed. He grabbed Harrington by the collar of his shirt, hauled him out of the ergonomic chair, and slammed him against the steel-reinforced wall with a dull thud.
“Don’t even think about it, corporate rat,” Marcus growled, pinning Harrington’s arms behind his back.
Harrington gasped for air, his expensive silk tie choking him slightly. “You... you don't understand! I was just following orders! The board members—they hold the real power! I was just a puppet!”
“Whose orders?” Ethan demanded, stepping forward until he was inches away from Harrington’s terrified face. He pressed the old photograph of Sarah against Harrington’s chest. “Who ordered the hit on my wife? Speak, or I’ll ensure you spend the rest of your natural life in a maximum-security prison with no chance of parole.”
Harrington trembled violently, his eyes darting toward the security camera mounted in the corner of the room. “It wasn't... it wasn't a random mugging on Route 9. The brakes on her car... they were cut while she was parked in the hotel’s VIP underground garage. She found out that the hotel wasn't just laundering money—it was being used as a front for an international corporate extortion ring.”
Ethan felt a cold wave of fury wash over him. The world seemed to tilt on its axis. Every quiet night he had spent comforting a weeping Lily, every birthday she had celebrated without her mother, every unanswered question at the graveside—all of it engineered by greed.
“Who gave the order?” Ethan repeated, his voice dangerously low.
“It was... it was Jonathan Sterling,” Harrington gasped out, naming the chairman of the board of directors, a man who was currently upstairs mingling with city politicians and philanthropists at the grand gala. “He found out Sarah copied the decrypted ledger onto an encrypted flash drive. She hid it somewhere only she and someone she trusted would know... she never gave it to the police because she knew the police department was on the board’s payroll.”
Marcus secured Harrington’s wrists with industrial zip-ties he carried in his tactical belt. “We’ve got everything we need on this server log, Mr. Vance. The automated mirror backup saved all the deleted files onto a secure flash drive I just plugged into the diagnostic port.”
Marcus pulled a small black drive from the terminal and handed it to Ethan.
May you like
Ethan took the drive, his thumb tracing its smooth plastic surface. Sarah had fought alone against a leviathan. But she hadn't lost—she had left a trail for him to follow.
“Let’s go pay a visit to Chairman Sterling,” Ethan said, his eyes burning with cold resolve. “And let’s make sure his party guests get a front-row seat to the truth.”
