Chapter 14 - The Counter-Checkmate
Viktor Thorne’s polite, predatory smile vanished instantly, replaced by a dark, dangerous mask of absolute fury. He slammed his crystal champagne glass onto the mahogany table, sending golden liquid splashing across the white linen. He turned his piercing gaze toward me, his eyes narrowing into cold slits. "You set me up," Viktor hissed, his voice dropping into a low, menacing register as Miller stepped closer, resting his hand casually near the holster concealed beneath his jacket.
I didn't flinch. I calmly set my untouched glass down beside his, smoothed the lapels of my tailored blazer, and leaned back in my leather seat with absolute, unshakeable composure. "Set you up, Viktor? Please. Do you really take me for a naive corporate amateur who flies to the Cayman Islands with a notorious international shipping tycoon without locking down a contingency plan?" I asked, tilting my head with a faint, chilling smile.
"What did you do?" Viktor demanded, his voice rising as he leaned across the table, his face inches from mine. "While your private security team was busy watching the flight deck, my automated forensic protocols—programmed to trigger the moment my secure satellite beacon detected an unauthorized rerouting of our flight path toward private unregistered airstrips—automatically transmitted your entire shell-company network, including the Cayman ledger we were flying to inspect, directly to the federal joint task force on financial crimes."
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Miller’s hand twitched toward his holster, but Viktor raised a single palm, stopping him. The billionaire tycoon stared at me in stunned silence, the realization dawning that he had walked directly into a trap engineered by a woman he had underestimated as a mere corporate subordinate. "You leaked my own ledger? To the DOJ? You realize that destroys the liquidity injection you need to save Mercer-Vance?" Viktor snarled.
"Mercer-Vance doesn't need your tainted offshore money anymore, Viktor," I replied quietly, checking the real-time financial ticker on my encrypted tablet. "An hour ago, while we were cruising over the Atlantic, my institutional restructuring team secured a clean, fully compliant two-hundred-and-fifty-million-dollar equity backing from a sovereign wealth fund that actually respects the rule of law. You’re no longer a partner, Mr. Thorne. You’re just another federal target."
