Chapter 14 - The International Syndicate
The following morning, the private conference room at Bennett Global was secured with military-grade electronic jamming devices. Only Detective Miller, Marcus Vance, and myself were present, reviewing the decrypted dossier on the Pantheon Group displayed on the smart-board.
“These aren’t just ordinary corporate raiders, Ms. Bennett,” Miller explained, pointing to a complex web of interconnected shell companies and dark-web financial nodes spanning Zurich, London, and Hong Kong. “The Pantheon Group is a secretive consortium of ultra-wealthy international investors who specialize in hostile sovereign takeovers, money laundering, and economic destabilization.”
Marcus adjusted his glasses, his face pale as he stared at the financial flowcharts. “Wait a minute... look at the founding date of their primary holding trust. Ten years ago. Exactly when Ethan and I first launched our initial startup funding round.”
“Which means,” I said, leaning forward with absolute clarity, “Ethan didn’t just stumble into wealth during our marriage. He sold our intellectual property rights to an international crime syndicate in exchange for seed capital, hiding it behind domestic corporate facades.”
“And now that Ethan is locked away in a federal penitentiary, and Victoria Sterling’s domestic network has collapsed, the Pantheon Group realizes their primary domestic proxy is gone,” Miller added grimly. “They’re exposed. Which means they’re coming after you directly to recover the master encryption keys.”
“They can try,” I replied calmly, my voice steady and cold. “They think because I’m a woman sitting in a penthouse with a newborn child, I’m an easy target. They don't realize that every single transaction they’ve routed through those European shell companies has been mirrored onto my private secure servers for the last five years.”
“What’s our counter-strategy?” Marcus asked nervously.
“We don’t wait for them to make a move,” I said, standing up and locking eyes with Detective Miller. “We set a honeypot. We release a compressed, encrypted package of decoy master keys onto the dark web—keys that look completely authentic, but contain an active tracking virus that will trace every single server node connected to the Pantheon network.”
Miller stared at me for a long moment, a slow, appreciative smile spreading across his weathered face. “Remind me never to get on your bad side, Ms. Bennett.”
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“Just execute the protocol, Detective,” I replied smoothly. “Let’s see how long these international shadows last in the spotlight.”
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