Chapter 22 - The Shadow of the BoardroomBy midnight, the London office was a hive of intense, focused activity. Marcus Bell, who had flown in from Chicago on a private red-eye flight, sat beside Clare at her terminal, his fingers flying across the keyboard as they decrypted the deeper layers of the Aegis European Holdings server.
"You were right, Kath," Marcus muttered, his eyes wide as lines of hidden data scrolled down the dual monitors. "The Luxembourg subsidiary isn't just inflating valuations. It’s an active money-laundering vehicle linked to international arms smuggling syndicates."
"And Julian Thorne isn't just an over-eager managing director," Clare added, pulling up a confidential personnel file. "He was a former protégé of Arthur Pendelton. When First Meridian collapsed, Julian scrubbed his digital footprint and embedded himself in our European division."
Marcus turned to look at her, shaking his head in disbelief. "They tried to infiltrate Bennett & Associates from the inside out. If we had signed that acquisition agreement this morning, they would have used our clean corporate reputation to launder half a billion dollars of illicit capital right under our noses."
"They thought I was a domestic homemhtar who got lucky in a divorce court," Clare said, a cold, fierce light shining in her eyes. "They didn't realize that when you spend years cleaning up other people's garbage, you develop an instinct for rot."
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"What’s our next move?" Marcus asked, cracking his knuckles. "Do we call Interpol?"
"We don't just call Interpol," Clare replied, sliding a secure flash drive into her jacket pocket. "We lay a trap so clean and inescapable that Julian won't even realize he's walking into a federal cell until the door clicks shut."
