Chapter 5 - The Trap Springs Shut"You can't prove any of this," Richard snarled, his voice rising into a desperate, cracking shriek as he backed away from the table toward the panoramic windows. "It's circumstantial! The statute of limitations—"
"Expired on corporate fraud, perhaps," a cool, synthesized voice interrupted from the wall-mounted monitor.
The conference screen flickered to life, projecting the face of Marcus Thorne, the legendary federal prosecutor known as the corporate executioner.
"But it hasn't expired on domestic terrorism funding, international money laundering, and the deliberate arson-homicide of Silas Vance's laboratory assistant in 1994," Thorne said smoothly. "We executed a search warrant on your Westchester estate at 8:15 AM, Mr. Sterling. We found the original blueprints signed in Silas Vance’s own hand, hidden inside your home safe right beside your passport."
Richard froze. His hand hovered over his coat pocket, where a burner phone buzzed incessantly against his ribs.
"Don't do it, Richard," Arthur warned, stepping forward with the slow, predatory grace of a wolf closing in on a wounded deer. "The federal marshals downstairs are already clearing the lobby. You're done."
With a guttural cry of pure rage, Richard lunged sideways, grabbing a heavy crystal water pitcher from the sideboard and hurling it directly at the floor-to-ceiling glass window.
CRASH!
The double-paned ballistic glass spiderwebbed under the impact, but held firm. Richard bounced off the reinforced barrier, stumbling backward into the arms of two federal agents who materialized from behind the acoustic panels like ghosts.
As handcuffs clicked onto Richard’s wrists, he glared venomously past the agents straight at Eleanor. "You think you've won? You're just a maid! You don't know how to run a multi-billion-dollar empire! The board will eat you alive within a week!"
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Eleanor stood up slowly, smoothing the lapels of her suit. She walked right up to him, stopping mere inches from his sweating, distorted face.
"I spent eight months counting my mother's tears behind a locked door while scrubbing the marble floors you walked on," Eleanor whispered, her voice dropping into a chilling register that made every executive in the room shudder. "Do you honestly think a boardroom full of cowards scares me?"
