Chapter 7: The Digital Trail
The hospital basement archives were dead quiet, save for the hum of the climate control units keeping the physical and digital server racks cool. Rows of steel shelving stretched into the dim fluorescent gloom, smelling faintly of old paper and ozone. I sat at a stainless-steel workstation terminal, the platinum access card plugged into a side port while Dominic stood guard near the heavy fire door, his shadow stretching long across the floor.
"Vance didn't just alter the manifests," I murmured, my eyes scanning the streaming lines of encrypted data. "He routed the corrupted batch numbers through a dummy corporation registered in the Cayman Islands. Look at this timestamp—it matches the exact week Julian started auditing the supply chain."
"That's why they tried to execute him in the alley," Dominic said, not turning around. He listened intently to the faint sounds of the hallway beyond the door. "An audit is a paper trail. A corpse is a closed case."
I downloaded the encrypted database onto a secure flash drive, pulling the platinum card from the port just as a chime echoed down the corridor. My breath caught in my throat. Footsteps—heavy, deliberate, and entirely too close—sounded against the linoleum.
The heavy door banged open, and Director Vance himself stepped into the archive room, flanked by two private security contractors in dark suits. Vance stopped dead in his tracks, his face draining of color when he saw me sitting at the terminal, with Dominic Vale standing beside me like a executioner.
"Maya," Vance choked out, his eyes darting to the flash drive in my hand. "You're trespassing on private hospital property. Security—"
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"Security is currently downstairs rethinking their life choices, Vance," Dominic interrupted, stepping forward out of the shadows. The menace in his posture was absolute. "And you're going to sit down at that secondary terminal and sign a full confession to the state health board, or I'm going to take these files straight to the federal prosecutor before the hour is out."
Vance looked at the security contractors, but they took one look at Dominic's face and took a half-step backward. The empire of corruption Vance had built was collapsing in real time, crushed under the weight of its own greed and the unyielding pressure of a brother who refused to let his family be erased.
