Chapter 12 - The Transponder Code
The engine of Julian’s executive sedan roared to life in the underground garage, the V8 motor vibrating through the concrete floor like a caged beast. The dashboard displays glowed with pulsing red warning lights as the central security mainframe synchronized with the vehicle's priority transponder.
Julian gripped the leather steering wheel with white-knuckled intensity, his eyes fixed on the concrete ramp leading up to the street level. In the passenger seat, Arthur Pendelton sat with a compact tactical laptop balanced on his knees, his fingers flying across the backlit keyboard as lines of green code scrolled frantically across the screen.
In the back seat sat Katherine. She had not spoken a single word since they left the archive vault. She simply rested her hands on the beige handbag that had started the entire confrontation at the upscale restaurant hours earlier, her expression as calm and unreadable as an ancient statue.
"Mainframe firewall is holding," Pendelton announced, his voice tense as the laptop screen flashed amber. "But Arturia is already inside the St. Jude substation network. She’s using your administrative credentials, Julian. The ones you left active on your home workstation."
Julian gritted his teeth, pressing his foot harder down on the accelerator. The car surged forward up the ramp, bursting out from the subterranean shadows into the cold, rain-swept downtown streets.
"She’s routing the indemnification waiver through the offshore shell accounts," Julian said, his mind racing back through every password and security protocol he had programmed during his tenure. "If she hits the final execution node, the federal government won't just seize Katherine's trust—they'll level every asset bearing the Vance name."
"She won't reach the final node," Katherine’s voice cut calmly from the back seat.
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Julian glanced in the rearview mirror, meeting Katherine’s steady gaze through the glass. "How can you be sure? The St. Jude substation is encrypted behind a trip
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