Chapter 6 - The Unraveling of Vanguard
We brought Vance back to an undisclosed warehouse on the edge of my territory—not to torture him, but to break his empire using the very weapon he feared most: information.
For three hours, with Detective Sarah Lin watching through a one-way mirror in the monitoring room, Silas and I laid out the ledgers we had seized from Vance's distribution hubs.
Faced with lifetime imprisonment in a federal maximum-security facility and the immediate collapse of his local network, Vance broke like thin glass. He signed full confessions, implicating Vanguard, three high-ranking city officials, and two Precinct 4 police captains in a wide-ranging syndicate operation that stretched from Seattle to San Francisco.
"Vanguard's hiding at his country estate in Mount Hood," Vance whimpered, his broken wrist wrapped in a makeshift splint. "He's got twenty men there! He's preparing to flee the country tonight!"
I stood up, closing the folder. "Thank you, Gregory."
I walked out of the room into the hallway where Detective Lin was waiting. Her eyes were wide as she held a thick stack of signed affidavits.
"This is enough to dismantle the entire Iron Syndicate," Lin whispered, looking at me with a mixture of shock and newfound respect. "We can issue federal arrest warrants for Vanguard and his captains right now."
"Federal warrants take hours to process, Sarah," I said, putting on my coat. "Vanguard will be on a private jet to South America before your SWAT team even finishes their briefing."
"Dominic, you can't hit a private estate in Mount Hood yourself!" Lin argued, following me toward the exit. "That's a military-grade fortification!"
"I don't need a military, Detective," I said, turning to look at her. "I have my men. And I have a promise to keep to a seven-year-old boy."
I left her standing in the corridor and stepped out into the night.
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Marco was waiting by the SUV. "The men are ready, Boss. We have four armored vehicles equipped with heavy breaches. Vanguard won't know what hit him."
"Good," I said, climbing into the back seat. "Let's finish this before the kids wake up for breakfast."
