Chapter 13 - The Missing Witness
Agent Miller’s expression shifted instantly from hardened skepticism to stark, unadulterated panic as his superior finished whispering. The investigator stood up so abruptly that his metal chair scraped harshly against the concrete floor.
"Get a tactical team down to holding cell four immediately," Miller snapped at the doorway, his voice echoing sharply off the cinderblock walls.
Clara remained seated at the stainless-steel table, her eyes narrowing as she watched the sudden chaos unfold. "What happened? Did Arthur try something?"
Miller turned back to her, his jaw tight. "Arthur Sterling isn't in holding cell four anymore. Ten minutes ago, a transfer order signed by a federal magistrate was processed through our digital portal. Two armed marshals escorted him out of the building."
Clara felt a cold knot twist in her stomach. "That's impossible. No magistrate would sign a transfer order for a high-risk financial fugitive in the middle of the night without notifying the lead investigator."
"It wasn't a real magistrate," Miller said grimly, pulling his service weapon from its holster and checking the magazine. "The digital signature was spoofed using a high-level military-grade encryption key. The same encryption key found on the Stag Management server."
Marcus. He hadn't just left Arthur to twist in the wind; he had orchestrated a coordinated extraction right under the federal government's nose. Arthur knew too much about the internal mechanics of the embezzlement scheme, and Marcus couldn't risk him cutting a deal with the DOJ.
"He's going to silence him," Clara realized aloud, standing up from the metal chair so fast her knees nearly buckled.
"Sit back down, Mrs. Sterling, you're still under federal protection—" Miller started, but Clara cut him off with a fierce, commanding glare that stopped him in his tracks.
"Protection? Your entire digital network was just breached by a ghost who has been dead for twelve years!" Clara shouted, her voice ringing off the concrete walls. "If you want to catch him, you need me. Because I'm the only person in this room who knows where Marcus is going next."
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Agent Miller stared at her, weighing the immense risk of trusting a civilian against the catastrophic failure of losing a high-profile fugitive right inside a federal facility. Before he could make a decision, the overhead lights in the interrogation room flickered violently twice and then died completely, plunging the space into total darkness, save for the emergency battery-powered backup strips casting an eerie red glow acr
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