Chapter 5 - Unmasking the SyndicateTwenty minutes later, the hospital corridor was swarming with flashing red and blue lights, local police sirens, and bewildered uniform cops securing the perimeter.
Vance and his surviving mercenary were zip-tied and dragged down the hallway toward the elevators. As Vance passed Tony’s room—where Tony now sat upright in a wheelchair, wearing a hospital gown soaked in fresh sweat—the disgraced federal agent spat blood onto the floor.
"You think you won, Tony?" Vance laughed hysterically, his face twisted in pain. "You think killing me stops it? The council already voted. Your entire empire is being carved up right this second. Your warehouses are burning. Your men are turning. By morning, you won't even have a dime left to your name."
Tony didn't blink. He reached down, his fingers gently scratching behind Bruno’s ears. The dog was panting heavily, a small scratch on his paw leaking a tiny drop of blood, but otherwise unharmed.
"Let them try," Tony said softly. "An empire built on fear can be rebuilt on blood. And unlike you, Vance... I have someone watching my back who can't be bought."
Miller walked into the room, holding a heavily encrypted burner phone recovered from Vance’s pocket.
"We unlocked Vance's tactical comms," Miller said, his expression grim. "The orders didn't come from Marco. Marco is locked in his safehouse right now, terrified out of his mind because his own phones are being jammed. The real order came from offshore. Geneva. The international council."
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Tony looked up sharply. "Geneva?"
"Yeah," Miller sighed, dropping the phone onto Tony's lap. "They aren't just trying to take over your territory, Tony. They're trying to launder ten billion dollars in digital currency through your shipping lanes. And they needed you dead so they could pin the entire global cartel collapse on your name."
