Chapter 9
As the autumn afternoon faded into a cool dusk, a black federal sedan pulled up the gravel driveway.
Agent Sarah Jenkins stepped out of the vehicle, walking briskly up the wooden steps of the front porch.
Thomas stood up to greet her, noticing the serious, urgent expression etched across the federal prosecutor's face.
"General Vance, I'm sorry to interrupt your afternoon, but something just came across my desk," Sarah reported quietly.
"What is it, Sarah?" Thomas asked, his military instincts instantly snapping back on high alert.
"During the final decryption of Apex Bio-Tech's mainframe servers, our cyber unit discovered an encrypted backup drive."
Sarah handed Thomas a sealed evidence envelope containing a small, black micro-SD card.
"Who was the backup server registered to?" Thomas demanded, holding the envelope up to the porch light.
"It wasn't registered to Richard Sterling or anyone in the Bethesda corporation," Sarah revealed grimly.
"The master encryption key routes directly to an off-grid server facility located in Zurich, Switzerland."
Clara stood up from her chair, walking over to join them as a cold chill ran down her spine.
"Zurich...?" Clara whispered, her eyes widening in sudden realization.
"That's the exact same international routing code that appeared on the documents Mark tried to hide."
Thomas turned the evidence envelope over in his hands, his stern grey eyes narrowing into dangerous slits.
"This means Richard Sterling was merely a regional manager for a much larger global syndicate," Thomas deduced aloud.
"The real masterminds are still out there."
Sarah nodded solemnly, pulling a printed transcript from her leather briefcase and handing it to the general.
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"Look at the last timestamp on the server backup file, General," Sarah instructed.
"It was accessed from a secure terminal in Washington just two hours ago."
