Chapter 15 - Shadows from the PastBack at the Napa Valley estate, life had settled into a peaceful, rhythmic routine. The vineyards were lush, the air was clear, and the children spent their afternoons running through the lavender fields with their new golden retriever puppy.
However, security remained tight. Marcus patrolled the perimeter daily, ensuring no stray operatives from Richard Sterling’s shattered faction could ever breach the estate.
One afternoon, while David and Harrison were reviewing architectural plans for the new children's foundation on the front porch, Marcus jogged up the gravel path holding an encrypted tablet.
"Boss, we intercepted an outgoing data ping from one of Richard’s old offshore servers in the Cayman Islands," Marcus reported, his expression serious.
Harrison looked up from the blueprints. "A dead-man's switch?"
"Not quite," Marcus replied, tapping the screen to display a complex financial ledger. "It's an automated transfer order scheduled to trigger if Richard didn't check in with a biometric key every forty-eight hours. Since he's locked in a federal max-security cell, the system just activated."
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David frowned. "Where is the money going?"
"Straight to a private mercenary outfit operating out of Eastern Europe," Marcus said grimly. "They’ve deployed a four-man hit squad. And their target isn't the corporation... it's this estate."
