Chapter 2 - THE MIDNIGHT RESIGNATIONMercy General Hospital was eerily quiet when I returned to Nadia’s room. The clinical smell of antiseptic was masked by the scent of fresh white roses Major Hart had ordered delivered.
Nadia was sitting up against the pillows, color slowly returning to her cheeks, though the heavy purple bruises around her throat remained a grim reminder of what she had survived. Detective Mara Bennett stood by the window, scrolling through a tablet.
"The Calder legal team just filed an emergency injunction to block the asset freeze," Mara said, not looking up. "They’re claiming the internal financial documents Nadia downloaded are inadmissible because she accessed them without authorization on a domestic Wi-Fi network."
"Tell them to save their breath," I said, pulling a chair close to Nadia’s bedside and taking her small, cold hand in mine. "Federal cybercrime investigators already mirror-imaged every hard drive in Calder headquarters. Their technicality defense is dead on arrival."
Nadia squeezed my fingers, her voice trembling slightly. "Dad... what about the board? Vivienne told me this morning that even if Preston went down, the board members would protect the company to keep the stock from crashing."
Before I could answer, the wall-mounted television screen, tuned to a 24-hour financial news network, flashed with breaking news.
“BREAKING: Emergency trading halt called for Calder Defense Logistics (CDL) following sudden dawn raids by federal agents and the Department of Defense. Meanwhile, in a stunning midnight move, CDL’s entire Board of Directors has just tendered their resignations, citing catastrophic compliance violations and potential treasonous supply-chain breaches.”
Mara let out a low whistle. "Well, that answers that. The rats didn't just abandon ship; they chewed through the lifeboats."
The hospital room door swung open, and Livia Hart walked in, carrying a secure military tablet. Her expression was grave, completely devoid of the triumph from earlier.
"General," Livia said, nodding to me before looking at Nadia. "Nadia, I need you to listen to me very carefully. The financial data you leaked to your foundation's secure drive? It triggered an automated dead-man's switch programmed by Preston’s chief technology officer."
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Nadia's eyes widened. "A dead-man's switch? To do what?"
"To wipe every server in their secondary data center in Zurich," Livia said grimly. "And unless we input the master cryptographic key within the next four hours, all digital evidence of the money laundering—and the names of the co-conspirators inside the Pentagon—will vanish forever."
