Chapter 6 - The Auditor's Weapon
As Nora hurried Leo toward the service elevator, Mara bypassed the main corridor and went straight to my study. I followed her, my heart pounding against my ribs like a trapped bird.
"Mara, we have five minutes before they breach the gates," I said. "What's the plan? We can't fight armed cartel enforcers with a fire poker."
Mara didn't answer. She walked behind my mahogany desk, tipped over the heavy bronze statue of a hawk, and revealed the small digital safe embedded in the floorboards. She entered a code, and the heavy steel door clicked open.
Inside wasn't a gun. It was a military-grade satellite modem and a rugged, black hard drive.
"What is that?" I asked.
"This is my insurance policy," Mara said, plugging the drive into her laptop. "I didn't just audit Beatrice’s accounts, Julian. I hacked the entire transaction ledger of Aegis Labs. The people funding the Macau syndicate aren't just local thugs. They are high-level politicians and banking executives in this very city who use the lab to launder their dirty money."
"If you leak that, they’ll kill us instantly," I said.
"If I leak it to the public, yes," Mara smiled, her eyes reflecting the cold blue light of the laptop screen. "But if I upload it directly to the Federal Prosecutor's secure drop-box with an active dead-man's switch tied to my heart rate monitor... they have to keep us alive. Because if my heart stops, the decryption key is automatically sent to every major news outlet in the country."
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She pulled a thin, black smart-band from her pocket and slipped it onto her left wrist. The digital display blinked, syncing with her laptop.
"The upload is at ninety percent," Mara said. "Once it's done, we hold all the cards."
