Chapter 7 - SYSTEM FAILURE

Suddenly, the large monitor screen behind Victor flashed violently red.

A loud, piercing alarm shrieked from Natalie’s laptop.

'CRITICAL ERROR: SYSTEM COMPROMISED. HOST FILE PURGE INITIATED.'

"What is this?!" Victor roared, rushing to the console. "Natalie! What did you do?!"

"I... I didn't do anything!" Natalie shrieked, backing away as lines of rogue code flooded the screen at light speed. "It’s overriding our firewalls! It’s accessing our corporate headquarters in New York!"

"Shut it down! Unplug it!" Victor screamed.

"It’s too late, Victor," I said, my voice cutting through the panic like a blade. "The moment that drive connected to your encrypted network, it bypassed your local security and uploaded directly to your corporate servers. Right now, every financial record, every illegal bribe, every off-book clinical trial Blackwood Pharmaceuticals has conducted over the last fifteen years is being transmitted directly to the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission."

Victor’s face turned gray. "You... you trapped me!"

"You tried to threaten my children," I said, taking a step forward as the heavy metal doors of the warehouse blew open with a deafening CRACK.

Blinding spotlights illuminated the entire warehouse, blinding Victor and his men.

"FEDERAL AGENTS! DROP YOUR WEAPONS! DOWN ON THE GROUND NOW!"

A dozen heavily armed FBI SWAT officers flooded the floor, lasers locking onto Victor’s guards. Within seconds, Victor’s men threw their weapons to the floor, hands above their heads.

Victor tried to reach for his gun on the table, but a tactical officer tackled him to the ground, slamming his face into the cold concrete and securing his hands in heavy zip-ties.

Natalie collapsed to her knees, weeping hysterically as officers cuffed her hands behind her back. "No! Please! I was forced to do this! Dominic made me do it!"

"Shut up, you crazy bitch!" Dominic screamed, his gag finally being pulled off by an officer. "She’s the one who planned it! She set me up!"

I walked slowly over to Dominic, looking down at him as he sat tied to the chair, covered in cold sweat and tears.

"Audrey... Audrey, oh God, you saved me!" Dominic sobbed, stretching his neck toward me. "I knew you still loved me! I knew it! Please, untie me! We can start over! I’ll be a good father to Liam and Chloe! I promise! I’ll do whatever you want!"

I looked at him with absolute, unadulterated pity.

"I didn't come here to save you, Dominic," I said softly.

Dominic froze. "What?"

"I brought the FBI here to arrest Victor," I said. "And to make sure you were here when they served the final indictment."

An FBI agent stepped forward, pulling a fresh arrest warrant from his jacket.

"Dominic Vance," the agent announced. "You are under arrest for conspiracy to commit industrial espionage, grand larceny, attempted extortion, and treasonous intellectual property theft."

Dominic’s jaw dropped. "Treason?! What are you talking about?!"

"The medical supply contracts you attempted to sell to Blackwood were under military defense sub-contracts underwritten by Vanguard," Julian Vance explained, walking in beside two federal prosecutors. "You didn't just steal from your wife, Dominic. You committed a federal crime against national infrastructure."

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"No... NO!" Dominic screamed as officers pulled him up from the chair, dragging him toward the waiting armored transport vehicles outside. "AUDREY! PLEASE! DON'T DO THIS TO ME! I’M YOUR HUSBAND! AUDREY!"

I turned my back on his screams, stepping out into the cool night air, leaving him to face the dark reality of a mandatory thirty-year federal prison sentence.