Chapter 6 - THE REDEMPTION OF HELL’S KITCHENAt 2:00 AM, a heavy black SUV pulled into the dark parking lot behind an old, abandoned warehouse in South Boston.
Elliot stepped out into the chilly night air. Standing near the shadows was a tall, heavily scarred man wearing a leather jacket, smoking a cigarette. This was Viktor Vance—Elliot’s estranged uncle, the black sheep of the Vance family who had been disowned thirty years ago for running an underground private security and intelligence network.
“Look who came crawling back to the gutter,” Viktor said, his voice rough as gravel. “The billionaire prince.”
“I need your team, Viktor,” Elliot said without hesitation. “Tonight.”
Viktor blew a plume of smoke into the air, eyeing his nephew critically. “I heard about your wedding. Lovely photos in the papers. You looked like a domesticated dog.”
“They took my daughter,” Elliot said simply.
Viktor froze. The mock cynical smile vanished from his face. “Who took her?”
“Marcus. And the Rhodes family. They’re holding her at a private facility in Chelsea, protected by armed guards under the guise of state-appointed custody.”
Viktor threw his cigarette to the ground and crushed it under his boot. “Marcus always was a ruthless bastard. He took my share of the company thirty years ago, and now he takes your kid? He never changes.”
Viktor snapped his fingers. From the shadows of the warehouse, four broad-shouldered men in tactical gear emerged.
“What’s the plan, Nephew?” Viktor asked, a dark smile spreading across his scarred face. “We going in with guns blazing?”
“No,” Elliot said, pulling out a USB drive and handing it to Viktor. “We’re doing something much worse. We’re destroying their money first.”
For the next three hours, Viktor’s team executed a silent cyber-war. Using the decryption keys Naomi had provided, they launched an automated script that flooded the New York Stock Exchange server with evidence of the illegal transactions between Vance Enterprises and Rhodes Financial.
Fraud. Embezzlement. Extortion. Child endangerment.
Every major news outlet in America—CNN, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal—received an anonymous broadcast package containing recorded phone calls between Marcus Vance and Camille Rhodes discussing the framing of Naomi Keller.
At 6:00 AM, as the sun began to peek over the Atlantic ocean, the news broke.
“BREAKING NEWS: VANCE ENTERPRISES ACCUSED OF MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR FRAUD. STOCK PLUMMETS 40% IN PRE-MARKET TRADING. CEO ELLIOT VANCE ALLEGEDLY FRAMED BY SPOUSE AND FATHER.”
Elliot stood beside Naomi inside Viktor’s command van, watching the television screens light up with chaos.
May you like
“It’s starting,” Naomi whispered, clutching Elliot’s arm.
“Now,” Elliot turned to Viktor’s tactical crew. “We go get Bella.”
