Chapter 12 - The Master Key
I walked slowly over to the glass table, resting my fingertips against the cold surface.
"You really don't understand how my family works, do you, Victor?" I asked gently.
Victor’s smile faded slightly. "What are you talking about?"
"You think my father built Vale Dominion on money?" I asked, looking up into his dark eyes.
"My father built his network on secrets."
I reached into my handbag and pulled out a small, metallic silver card with no markings, setting it flat on the table beside his leather binder.
"My mother’s trust wasn't a bank account, Victor," I revealed softly.
"It was a trapdoor."
"When my mother died, my father locked that charter with a dead-man's switch."
"If anyone ever attempted to access those funds using a forged biometric key..."
I tapped the silver card once.
"...it doesn't release sixty million dollars."
"It automatically transmits thirty years of unredacted transaction logs from Vance Logistics directly to the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority and the IRS."
Victor’s face went ghastly white.
He scrambled frantically for his smartphone on the table, his manicured fingers trembling violently as he brought the screen to his eyes.
A barrage of emergency encrypted notifications was flooding his private terminal.
SWISS FINANCIAL AUTHORITY: ACCOUNTS SEIZED UNDER ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING ACT.
VANCE LOGISTICS GENEVA OFFICE: FEDERAL RAID IN PROGRESS.
ZURICH VAULT ACCESS: DENIED & PERMANENTLY LOCKED.
"No... no!" Victor stammered, dropping his glass of scotch onto the plush rug, where it shattered uselessly.
"This is impossible! Nathan swore the key was clean!"
"Nathan was a greedy fool who believed what he wanted to believe," I said, taking my coat back around my shoulders.
May you like
"Just like you."
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