Chapter 5 - The Mastermind's Gambit
Justice Richard Sterling adjusted his gold cuff links calmly, as if he were standing in a courtroom rather than a blood-soaked cellar.
"Surprised, Julian?" Richard asked smoothly, nodding to his men. One of the mercenaries picked up Julian’s dropped handgun and handed it to Richard. "Did you really think a silly, greedy woman like Victoria Hale could build a billion-dollar empire by herself? She was just our accountant. A face for the public to admire while we moved hundreds of millions through her logistics firms."
"You killed Eleanor," Julian spat, wiping blood from his mouth. "You had her poisoned in that asylum!"
"Eleanor was dangerous," Richard sighed, checking the magazine of the gun. "She was smart. Far smarter than Victoria. She found out about the Apex Circle three years ago. If she had stayed quiet, she would still be alive. But she insisted on gathering evidence. She even trained that pathetic little girl to play the martyr in front of the media."
Inside the safe room, Lily pressed her ear against the thick steel door, listening to every word through the intercom system. She held her breath, her eyes burning with pure hatred.
"You won't get away with this, Sterling," Julian growled. "The entire city saw Victoria’s arrest. The media is digging into every single one of Hale Enterprises' offshore accounts right now!"
"Let them dig," Richard laughed quietly. "They will find that every single illegal dollar traces straight back to Victoria... and your dead body, Julian."
Julian’s eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?"
"By tomorrow morning, the news will report a tragic story," Richard said, stepping closer and aiming the gun directly at Julian’s head. "They will say that Julian Vance, overwhelmed by corruption charges and illicit ties to the Hale fortune, killed himself in his home after murdering his private security. And as for little Lily... she will simply vanish. An unfortunate victim of a stray bullet."
Richard pulled back the slide of the pistol.
"Goodbye, Counselor."
BANG!
A shot shattered the silence. But it didn't come from Richard’s gun.
The heavy wooden door at the top of the cellar stairs blew inward in a cloud of splinters and dust.
"POLICE! DROP YOUR WEAPONS!"
A hail of gunfire roared through the cellar. Flashbang grenades exploded in blinding flashes of white light and deafening booms.
Detective Marcus Vance scrambled down the stairs with a full SWAT tactical unit behind him, rifles raised.
Richard Sterling’s mercenaries were neutralized in seconds, dropping to the floor under heavy fire. Richard, blinded and disoriented by the flashbang, was tackled hard onto the stone floor by Marcus himself, his face slammed against the cold ground.
"Marcus!" Julian coughed, struggling to sit up.
"I told you I’d be watching the house, little brother," Marcus grunted, clicking heavy steel cuffs onto Justice Sterling’s wrists. "The moment the signal jammer went live, our perimeter units moved in."
The steel door of the safe room clicked open. Lily stepped out into the smoke-filled room. She didn't look at the tactical officers or the blood on the floor. She walked straight past everyone and stood right over Chief Justice Richard Sterling.
Richard looked up at her, his aristocratic pride shattered, his face covered in dust and sweat.
Lily reached into her small coat pocket and pulled out her phone. The screen was glowing green.
A live call was active. On the screen was the emblem of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
"He confessed," Lily said softly into the phone's microphone. "Did you hear him?"
A voice spoke loudly from the phone’s speaker: "We heard everything, little girl. Federal warrants have just been issued for every member of the Apex Circle."
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Richard’s face went ghost white. He looked at the seven-year-old girl in absolute horror.
She hadn't just survived. She had played him into confessing on an open federal wire.
