Chapter 15 - THE SECRET VAULT IN D.C.
Two days later, Maya stood inside a private subterranean vault beneath the Treasury Building in Washington D.C. The air inside was cool and smelled of aged paper and brass polish, far away from the noise of Manhattan.
Agent Vance stood beside her, his arm supported by his sling as he watched Maya approach a massive stainless steel safety deposit box mounted on the wall.
"Richard destroyed his copy of the key at Teterboro," Vance reminded her gently. "Are you sure your father left you a secondary passcode?"
Maya did not answer with words. She reached up to her neck, unclasping a delicate silver locket she had worn under her grey hoodie since childhood. Inside lay a micro-thin magnetic strip containing her father's biological DNA sequence.
She slid the strip into the vault's electronic scanner, holding her breath as a series of red lights flashed across the digital display.
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With a deep mechanical clunk, the heavy steel door swung open, revealing rows of black leather binders marked with the official seal of the United States Armed Forces.
"This isn't just financial fraud, Vance," Maya whispered as she pulled out the top binder. "This is evidence of a forty-year military conspiracy."
