Chapter 15 - THE COUNTER-ATTACK PLANAdrian snatched the document from her hands, his eyes scanning the fine print under the bright beam of the flashlight. A cold, determined smirk slowly crept across his lips.
"She made a fatal mistake," Adrian whispered, relief washing over his voice. "She forged a government notary seal that was retired five years ago. Because it's a physical government archive document, this constitutes federal forgery and treason against the state economic board."
Sophie felt a surge of hope. "Can we use this to trap her?"
"We won't just trap her, Sophie," Adrian said, slamming the file shut. "We’re going to give her exactly what she wants—right into a federal trap."
Within twenty minutes, the basement command center was a hive of frantic, analog activity. Since Elena had jammed the digital Wi-Fi routers, Adrian pulled out an old-school military-grade satellite radio transceiver hidden behind the water heater.
He cranked the manual frequency dial, tuning into a secure encrypted channel reserved exclusively for his old friend, General Marcus Thorne—who had recently been promoted to Head of Federal Task Force Operations.
Static... hiss...
"This is Vanguard Actual. Priority Alpha-Zero-Nine. Do you copy, Thorne?" Adrian spoke firmly into the heavy black handset.
A few seconds of static passed before a crisp, authoritative voice broke through the speaker. "Vance? I thought your home network was compromised. What's going on?"
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"It is. We have an active hostage extortion threat by an unapprehended operative named Elena Rostova," Adrian reported rapidly. "She has forged state documents and is demanding a forced corporate sign-over at dawn in my main study. I want a full tactical SWAT blockade around the perimeter, but I want them completely silent until she signs the fraudulent transfer."
General Thorne’s voice dropped an octave, turning icy and tactical. "Understood, Adrian. We’ll blanket the estate in silence. We take her live, and we take her with the signed confession in her hand. Hang tight."
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