Chapter 15 - The Prisoner’s Proposition

I stared at the letter, the blood rushing in my ears like a roaring freight train.

An automated contingency file. Jonathan Sterling was behind bars, yet he was still pulling strings from a federal supermax cell, attempting to blackmail the very woman who had put him there.

I picked up my secure desk phone and dialed Julian Vance’s private line.

“Julian,” I said instantly when he picked up, my voice cold and razor-sharp. “We have an emergency.”

Thirty minutes later, Julian and Agent Vance were standing in my office, staring down at the handwritten letter spread across my desk.

“Jonathan Sterling,” Agent Vance muttered, his brow furrowing deeply. “That’s impossible. The federal penitentiary isolation protocols ensure zero outside communication for high-tier RICO inmates.”

“Impossible or not, he managed to smuggle a letter out through a corrupt prison guard,” I replied, standing up and pacing toward the window overlooking the rainy Albany street. “He wants an arrangement. He wants me to use the foundation’s legal influence to file an appeal for his compassionate release under the guise of failing health.”

“And if you refuse?” Julian asked quietly, his hand resting instinctively on his holster.

“If I refuse, his automated server releases a fabricated espionage dossier to international intelligence agencies, freezing the foundation’s accounts and triggering a federal investigation against my father and me,” I said, turning back to face them.

Agent Vance crossed his arms, his expression grim. “We can raid the prison, interrogate the guards, and trace the server IP.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head firmly. “Jonathan is playing chess, and if we react with brute force, we walk straight into his trap. He wants us to panic.”

“Then what do you propose we do, Hannah?” Julian asked, watching me with a mixture of respect and intense curiosity.

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I walked back to my desk, picked up a secure encrypted tablet, and activated the terminal connection to ECHO’s global satellite array—the network Carl had left behind.

“We don’t panic,” I said, a cold, calculated smile touching my lips. “We counter-attack. Jonathan thinks he’s the only one who can set a trap from the shadows. Let’s show him what happens when you threaten a Thorne.”