Chapter 15 - THE TRAP IS SPRUNGTitle: Checkmate on the Atlantic: When the Prey Became the Hunter
Arthur Vance’s smile stretched wider, a look of absolute triumph illuminating his aristocratic face.
"Did you really think I was going to let you walk out of here alive, Dantis? You and your little stray dog rescuer?" Vance laughed, gesturing to the circle of armed men closing in around them. "The moment you stepped onto this property, your satellite comms were jammed. No backup. No extraction. Just the ocean."
Daisy didn't flinch. She didn't drop her gaze, nor did she cower behind Aleandro. Instead, a slow, knowing smile crept across her lips.
"You think we relied on satellite comms?" Daisy asked softly, tilting her head.
Vance’s smile faltered for a microsecond. "What are you talking about?"
Suddenly, the overhead lights in the glass mansion flickered, sputtered, and died completely. The room plunged into sudden, suffocating darkness, illuminated only by the pale, cold moonlight crashing through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
A high-pitched digital alarm began to wail from the console on the conference table.
"What is that?" Vance barked, spinning around to face his lead mercenary. "Check the server room!"
Before the guard could move, the heavy steel reinforced security doors at the end of the foyer blew inward with a deafening, concussive roar. Smoke grenades flooded the hallway, followed immediately by the staccato thunder of submachine gunfire and the terrifying, unmistakable war-cry of Salvatore and a dozen elite Dantis capos pouring into the building.
Aleandro moved with lethal, blinding speed. In a single fluid motion, he drew his pistol, grabbed Vance by the silk lapels of his suit, and slammed him hard against the glass wall, pressing the cold barrel of the gun directly beneath the billionaire’s chin.
"The hard drive you just put in your pocket, Arthur?" Aleandro whispered, his voice dripping with deadly ice. "It wasn't our financial ledger. It was a military-grade worm."
Vance’s face turned the color of chalk. "You... you hacked us."
"Every shell company, every offshore bank account, every corrupt politician on your payroll is currently being broadcasted live to every federal prosecutor, international news agency, and Interpol server in the world," Daisy said calmly, pulling a small tablet from her coat and showing Vance the live-updating deletion logs. "Your empire was erased in twelve seconds."
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Vance thrashed wildly, but Aleandro’s grip remained like a steel vice.
"You're ruined, Arthur," Aleandro murmured into the trembling man's ear. "And in our world, a ruined man doesn't get a trial."
