A Quiet Departure From the Shadows of a Chicago Empire
The doors opened, and Agent Vance was standing in the hallway.
He was wearing a wrinkled white shirt, his tie pulled loose at the collar.
He looked like a man who had not slept in days.
“Elena,” Vance said, his voice quiet. “Come this way.”
He led me down a corridor lined with empty cubicles to a small conference room.
A single laptop sat on the table, surrounded by paper files.
I sat down in the vinyl chair, my coat still on.
“Do you have it?” Vance asked, sitting across from me.
I placed the black flash drive on the table between us.
“This is everything,” I said.
“Marcus’s ledger, his bank routing numbers, and his bribery lists.”
Vance picked up the drive as if it were made of glass.
“This will dismantle the Vale organization within forty-eight hours,” he said.
“There is more,” I said.
Vance paused, looking at me.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“The drive contains a separate encrypted folder,” I said.
“It holds three years of financial transfers made by Sophia.”
“She has been stealing from the syndicate’s primary partners in Detroit and New York.”