Chapter 15 - The Director's Ledger
Vance stepped into the room, his gun aimed squarely at Judge Sterling’s chest. "It’s over, Sterling. Or should I call you 'The Director'?"
Sterling chuckled softly, a polished, aristocratic sound that grated on Vance’s nerves. "Names are irrelevant, Vance. You're a small-town Sheriff who thinks in simple terms of good and bad, legal and illegal. Do you really believe this county ran smoothly because of your little police force?"
"I know you used Collins and Thorne to terrorize people, smuggle narcotics, and murder anyone who got in your way," Vance said, his voice dropping to a dangerous register. "And I know you’re going to spend the rest of your natural life in a supermax federal prison."
Sterling looked at Agent Chen, then back at Vance. "You think you've caught the top of the pyramid? I am merely a regional director for an enterprise that spans three states. My arrest changes nothing. The machine will simply appoint a new manager by tomorrow morning."
"Maybe," Chen cut in, stepping past Sterling to the heavy steel safe embedded in the wall behind the desk. She pulled out a small electronic bypass device, attaching it to the digital keypad. "But with the master server drive sitting in this safe, we’ll have the bank accounts, names, and routing numbers of every single official on your payroll."
Sterling’s calm composure cracked for a fraction of a second, his eyes darting toward the safe as the bypass device beeped rapidly, cracking the combination.
CLICK.
The heavy steel door of the safe swung open. Inside lay three black hard drives and a thick, leather-bound book containing handwritten offshore transfer codes.
"Secure the drives," Chen ordered her operators.
Suddenly, a loud, high-pitched alarm echoed through the entire foundry complex. Red emergency lights began flashing wildly along the iron walls.
"What did you do?" Vance demanded, glaring at Sterling.
Sterling smiled, a sinister, terrifying expression. "This facility is equipped with an automated thermite destruction system in the event of an unauthorized breach. In ninety seconds, five hundred pounds of incendiary thermite will ignite on the lower floor, turning this entire iron structure into a three-thousand-degree furnace."
"You lunatic!" Chen yelled. "You'll kill yourself!"
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"I'd rather burn than spend thirty years in a cage," Sterling replied coolly.
Before Vance could react, Sterling suddenly lunged sideways, crashing his body through the glass window of the elevated office, plunging thirty feet down into the dark shadows of the smelting pit below.
