Chapter 4 - The Port of Entry-4
The high-performance luxury SUV my brother’s firm had deployed for our tactical operations convoy tore through the dark, sleet-choked corridors along the shipping canal, its heavy tires screaming against the wet asphalt as we pushed toward the downtown data annex. A blinding sheet of freezing autumn rain battered the reinforced windshield in a relentless, concussive tempo, turning the grey silhouettes of abandoned manufacturing foundries and rusted iron cranes into a shifting, featureless wasteland of gray water.
The time was 11:24 p.m. We had precisely thirty-six minutes before the international financial clearing houses closed their nightly processing sessions in New York, executing the automatic verification script that would permanently lock the asset transfers inside the state registry system.
May you like
I sat in the passenger seat, my tablet terminal resting flat across my knees, my fingers flying across the mechanical keyboard as Victor’s forensic IT specialists bypassed the primary firewalls of the Vance logistics network. In the rear cabin row sat Rosa, the elderly cook who had spent ten years hiding the original paper deeds of our family trust inside her pantry wall blocks before Victoria threw her out onto the concrete curb last winter. I had refused to leave her behind at the municipal clinic; if Truett’s handlers realized the data loop had been fractured, the warehouse would be dark before the local police precinct could route a cruiser to the gate line.
"The transponder codes are centering on Storage Unit 108 inside the Ironwood Maritime Annex, Elena," Victor said, swerving the heavy vehicle through a flooded construction barrier near the riverfront district. He cut the SUV’s headlights, drifting the black humvee into the shadow of an overgrown loading dock near the canal locks. "Truett Vance is already down there. He knows the moment the grand jury signs the warrants tomorrow morning, his personal banking history becomes public record. He has to incinerate the master drives to protect his connection to the Nicosia accounts."
