Chapter 10 - The Interrogation Begins
The rear doors of the transport van swung open violently, letting in a rush of cold, damp air from the abandoned shipping yards surrounding the city's harbor. Two armed federal guards grabbed Julian roughly by the arms, hauling him out of the vehicle and forcing him to his knees on the damp asphalt. The plastic zip-ties had finally snapped under his persistent friction, leaving raw, red rope-burns around his wrists, but he kept his hands hidden behind his back, feigning compliance.
They dragged him inside a cavernous, dimly lit concrete warehouse that smelled of rusted iron and stagnant seawater. A single metal interrogation table sat in the center of the vast, hollow space, illuminated by an overhead swinging lamp that cast harsh, erratic shadows.
Sarah Miller stepped out from the darkness, holding a thick tablet computer in her hands. She signaled the guards to step back, and they immediately retreated to the perimeter of the room, their assault rifles held at the ready.
"Let’s skip the pleasantries, Julian," Sarah said, tossing the tablet onto the metal table with a sharp clatter. "You’re heading into a maximum-security supermax facility before the sun comes up. Unless you want to spend the rest of your natural life staring at four concrete walls, you’re going to tell me everything about Elena's offshore backup locations."
Julian slowly rose to his feet, rolling his shoulders to loosen the tension in his muscles. His stubble-lined face remained entirely impassive as he walked toward the metal table, stopping just on the opposite side.
"You asked me what Elena was doing, Miller," Julian said, his voice deep and steady, echoing off the high concrete ceilings. "You think she betrayed the syndicate for a federal payout? Elena didn't steal the files to run away. She stole them to burn the entire system down from the inside out—including the corrupt federal officials who were funding our operation."
Sarah froze, her hand hovering over the tablet screen. "What are you talking about?"
"Do you really think a mid-level criminal syndicate operates for twenty years in a major American city without high-level protection?" Julian stepped closer to the table, leaning forward on his knuckles. "The files you're looking for don't just contain our money laundering routes. They contain the bank account numbers, encrypted comms logs, and real identities of the directors running your own agency."
Sarah’s eyes widened slightly, her professional facade cracking for a fraction of a second. "You're lying. That's a desperate play to save your own skin."
"Check the metadata on the decoy USB drive Elena left behind," Julian challenged, maintaining unbroken eye contact. "She didn't run away from the feds, Agent Miller. She lured you to the house so you would confiscate the decoy, while she uploaded the real master payload directly into your agency’s central server."
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Before Sarah could process the devastating implications of his words, the overhead swinging lamp flickered violently, and every light in the massive warehouse abruptly died, plunging them into pitch-black darkness.
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