Chapter 15 - THE CROSSFIRE OF DECEPTIONDante didn’t flinch, but his hand hovered near his inside coat pocket. The two enforcers beside him tensed, their muscles coiling like steel springs.
Julian Vance chuckled, walking slowly toward Matteo with his hands clasped behind his back. “You walked right into the trap, Matteo. The moment your helicopter crossed city airspace, my cyber-unit locked down your offshore accounts, seized the Marquez shipping ports, and flagged your wife’s diner for federal tax audits. By sunrise, everything you built in that little rust-belt town will be seized by the state.”
Matteo stood completely still under the crisscrossing web of red laser dots. He didn't look angry. He didn't look trapped.
He looked profoundly disappointed.
“Julian,” Matteo said, his voice dropping into that hypnotic, velvet baritone that made men's blood run cold. “Did you really think I flew all the way to Manhattan without checking your security logs?”
Vance’s smile faltered for a fraction of a second. “What are you talking about?”
At that exact moment, the luxury penthouse lights flickered, hummed violently, and then died completely, plunging the massive room into pitch blackness save for the amber glow of the city lights outside.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
A high-pitched digital alarm began screeching from the master control console across the room. One of the mercenaries spun around in a panic, shining his weapon-mounted flashlight toward the terminal.
The screen was flashing a bright, pulsing red warning: SYSTEM COMPROMISED. UPLOADING COUNTER-PROTOCOL.
“What is this?!” Vance hissed, his aristocratic composure cracking as he turned to his chief technician. “Shut it down!”
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“I can’t!” the technician yelled back over the blaring alarm, his fingers flying across the glowing keyboard in absolute terror. “Someone bypassed our master firewall from an external relay station! They’re stripping our encrypted accounts, seizing our shell companies, and transferring our entire liquid reserve into—into a public charity fund in upstate New York!”
Julian Vance spun back around to face Matteo, his eyes wide with sudden, unadulterated panic. “You set me up. You used the tracking beacon as bait!”
