Chapter 4 - The Missing Witness
At 4:30 AM, a sleek black unmarked Ford Explorer slipped silently down the suburban street, parking three houses away with its lights completely extinguished.
Inside the vehicle sat Marcus Vance and two armed Military Police investigators wearing tactical vests and night-vision comms.
"We have confirmation on the asset freeze," the lead MP officer, Captain Hayes, muttered, tapping a digital tablet. "All joint accounts tied to Ryan and Evelyn Bennett have been locked by federal court order. But there's a complication."
"What kind of complication?" Marcus asked, leaning over the center console.
"We intercepted a encrypted data packet originating from a secondary terminal inside the house about ten minutes ago," Captain Hayes said, turning the tablet to show a thermal schematic of Lisa's office. "It looks like someone else is logged into Lisa’s corporate network from a remote physical location—an office suite downtown owned by Vanguard Asset Management. And the access credentials being used belong to Julian Vance."
Marcus’s eyes widened. "Julian? He’s active?"
"He's been active for three years," Captain Hayes replied grimly. "He didn't die in a training accident. He went deep undercover inside Evelyn’s network to gather evidence for military intelligence after discovering his own mother was running a posthumous soldier identity theft ring. But yesterday evening... he stopped transmitting."
Marcus felt a cold knot tighten in his stomach. "Where is he now?"
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"According to the geolocator ping on his secure burner phone, he was lured into Lisa’s corporate office building downtown at midnight under the guise of an emergency security audit," Captain Hayes said, slamming the gear shift into drive. "And if our surveillance cameras are correct, someone is already waiting for him inside."
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