Chapter 7 - The Trap is Sprung
The federal field office in downtown Seattle was brightly lit and buzzing with suppressed excitement. It was 2:30 AM on Friday morning.
Detective Miller plugged the Project Janus flash drive into a secure, air-gapped federal terminal while Agent Vance—a senior federal prosecutor who had flown in from Washington D.C. on a midnight transport—watched the data streams populate across three massive wall monitors.
Lines of code, financial ledgers, and video metadata cascaded down the screens in a waterfall of green text.
"It’s all here," Agent Vance whispered, staring in disbelief at the sheer volume of incriminating data. "Extortion receipts, shell corporation registries, encrypted video feeds routed directly to offshore servers... and right here—Victor Cain’s digital signature authorizing the monthly wire transfers to Mark’s offshore account."
Miller turned to Elena, who stood by the coffee station, utterly exhausted, her hands wrapped around a fresh paper cup. "You just handed us the golden key to take down an entire international syndicate, Elena. Victor Cain’s legal team can't bury this. Warrants are being signed by a federal judge right now."
"When do we move?" Elena asked, her voice cold as steel.
"Dawn," Agent Vance said firmly. "Federal agents are executing simultaneous raids on Cain Enterprises headquarters in Portland and Victor Cain’s private waterfront estate in Medina. He won't even see it coming."
"I want to be there," Elena said quietly.
May you like
Miller looked at her, starting to protest. "Elena, it’s going to be chaotic. It’s dangerous—"
"I gave you the ledger. I cracked the vault. I walked through hell to get that flash drive," Elena interrupted, her voice brooking no argument. "I want to watch the man who rented my husband’s soul realize his empire is turning to ash."
