But the story was not over. Carter Banks was just the puppet. The man pulling the strings was still out there. And he would not be happy that a waitress had just cost him forty billion dollars.
They drank the wine while the police took Carter out in frosting and handcuffs. Klaus wept into a napkin and called Vienna twice, just to hear his son’s voice. Adrian did not toast the merger. He toasted the clause that had not been signed. By the time the bottle was empty, his lawyers had the German contract, the satellite-phone recording, and Klaus’s statement. It should have been enough. It was not. Carter had been talking for less than an hour when a detective named Miller walked into the holding interview and shut the recorder off. By morning, the charges were softening, the interpreter’s accident no longer looked accidental, and Adrian’s office had been swept. They made it to the law firm’s panic room with the files still on his phone. Sarah’s uniform was torn. Adrian’s expression, when the steel door sealed, darkened.
“Victor Kane runs the Shadow Syndicate,” he said. “He’s the reason my father died ten years ago. Everyone said it was a heart attack. It wasn’t. It was poison. Kane wanted the company then, and I stopped him. He’s been waiting for a moment of weakness.” He looked at Sarah intensely. “And tonight, at dinner, when you exposed Carter, you didn’t just save money. You exposed Kane’s mole. You humiliated him. He’s not just coming for the company anymore, Sarah. He’s coming for us. Personally.”
Sarah thought of her mother in Queens. “My mom.” “My security team is already there,” Adrian assured her. “They’re moving her to a safe house in Connecticut as we speak. She’s safe. But we can’t go to the police. Miller proves they’re compromised.” “So what do we do?” Sarah asked. “We can’t hide in a law office forever.” Adrian stood up, wincing slightly. “We stop running. Kane thinks he has the upper hand because he has guns and corrupt cops, but he forgot one thing.” “What?” “I have the leverage.” Adrian tapped his phone. “While we were in the panic room, I didn’t wipe the servers. I downloaded Carter’s secret files, the ones he kept as insurance against Kane. I have the ledger, Sarah. Every bribe, every murder, every shipment.” Sarah’s eyes widened. “You have proof?” “I have a nuclear bomb,” Adrian corrected. “But we can’t upload it from here. Kane is jamming the signal. Look at your phone. No service.” Sarah checked. No bars. “We need to get to the server farm. It’s in the basement of the old Vanguard building in the Meatpacking District. Hardline connection. Unjammable.” “The Meatpacking District?” Sarah looked at her torn leggings. “That’s sixty blocks away. And there are killers outside.” “Then we better get moving,” Adrian said.