Chapter 25 - The Thorne Dossier
James burst through the adjoining door from his office two seconds later, his face flushed with adrenaline, stepping instantly between me and the uninvited guest.
"Thorne," James snarled, his fists clenching at his sides. "What the hell are you doing here? Your jurisdiction ended when Vance was suspended."
"My jurisdiction, James, was merely paused while the dust settled," Thorne replied smoothly, showing no alarm at James's aggressive posture. He didn't draw a weapon; instead, he calmly set his leather briefcase on the edge of my desk and popped the brass latches with a double click. "The federal government is very good at prosecuting mid-level conspirators like Doctor Evans. They love putting doctors in orange jumpsuits because it plays well on the evening news. But governments are remarkably poor at managing complex financial networks once the principals are locked away."
He reached inside the briefcase and pulled out a thick, manila folder stamped with a red CLASSIFIED - EYES ONLY banner.
"What is that?" I asked, standing up from my desk, my heart hammering against my ribs.
"That, Mrs. Miller, is the rest of the story," Thorne said, sliding the folder across the mahogany wood toward us. "Doctor Evans wasn't operating a rogue fertility clinic out of a suburban basement. She was a node in an international asset-management syndicate that used private genetic trusts to secure long-term capital investments for high-net-worth individuals who wanted to control hereditary estates across generations."
James stared down at the folder without touching it. "That syndicate was dismantled. The assets were frozen."
"The domestic accounts were frozen," Thorne corrected quietly. "The European portfolios—the ones tied directly to the endowment fund you just accepted on behalf of this foundation—were untouched. And guess who the primary corporate guarantor is on those offshore accounts?"
May you like
My breath hitched. "Who?"
"Your husband's original corporate trust," Thorne said, looking straight at James. "The one he set up nine years ago when he stored the original embryo. James, you aren't just the director of this foundation. Legally speaking, according to international maritime and financial law, you are the majority shareholder of a two-hundred-million-dollar offshore asset pool that the syndicate used to launder money."
