Chapter 13 - Dismantling the Ghost Network
Down in the sub-basement holding cells, Arthur Vance looked smaller, older, and utterly defeated.
The encrypted flash drive recovered from his quarters had already been uploaded to Mason’s private server banks.
Within three hours, automated scripts had systematically targeted every offshore shell corporation, Swiss bank account, and dummy holding company controlled by the international syndicate.
By sunrise, the financial lifeblood of the cartel had been frozen, seized, and rerouted into sovereign government accounts that the syndicate could never touch.
Mason stood outside Vance’s cell, watching the fallen comptroller through the thick reinforced glass panel.
“Your handlers in Washington are already burning their paperwork, Arthur,” Mason said, his voice echoing coldly off the concrete walls.
“They realized that the moment you left that ledger unlocked, your usefulness expired.”
Vance raised his head, his face pale and hollow, his voice reduced to a dry, broken rattle.
“They’ll come for you, Mason,” Vance spat bitterly.
“You can’t hide behind stone walls and private guards forever.”
“The syndicate is older than your father, and it will outlive you.”
Mason let out a cold, humorless laugh.
“Let them come,” Mason answered calmly.
“I’ve spent twenty-two years waiting for them to show their faces in the light.”
“And unlike my father, I don’t intend to wait behind closed doors.”
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Mason turned his back on the cell, leaving the disgraced traitor to rot in the absolute silence of the underground vault.
The ghost network that had dictated the Bellini family’s fate for two decades was officially dead.
