Chapter 26 - Infiltrating the Vault
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Working alongside the FBI required a level of security I had never previously experienced. Agent Lin set up a air-gapped terminal inside my home office, allowing me to run complex algorithms against Vance Global’s encrypted transaction logs without risking a leak.
For forty-eight continuous hours, I lived on green tea and absolute focus.
"Look at this entry here," I said, pointing to a line of code flashing green on my monitor. Agent Lin leaned over my shoulder, holding a notepad.
"What am I looking at?" she asked.
"Julian Vance didn't just launder money through municipal contracts," I explained, tracing the routing numbers with my pen.
"He created a secondary, ghost ledger hidden inside the company's real estate acquisition software. Every time Vance Global purchased a downtown commercial property, they artificially inflated the price by twelve percent."
"Where did the extra twelve percent go?"
"Into a private trust registered in the Swiss Alps," I said, hitting a key to execute a decryption macro.
"An account controlled jointly by Julian Vance and... Owen Sterling."
Agent Lin whistled softly through her teeth.
"Owen was keeping a secondary set of books behind Vance's back," she realized.
"Precisely," I said, a cold satisfaction settling over me.
"Owen wasn't just Vance's lapdog; he was stealing from him. That’s why Owen was so terrified the night he attacked me. He realized I had uncovered his personal accounting files, and he knew that if Vance found out about his theft, Vance would have killed him."
"And now you hold the proof of both their crimes," Agent Lin said, staring at the screen in disbelief.
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"Yes," I replied softly, closing the laptop lid with a firm snap.
"Owen tried to ruin my life to protect a lie. Now, his lie is going to send both of them to federal prison."
