Chapter 18 - THE INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST
Marcus Vance—no relation to the corporate family, much to his amusement—shook Ethan's hand firmly before turning to Chloe.
"You must be Chloe. Ethan has told me a great deal about your thesis data," Marcus said, motioning for them to sit down.
"Did Ethan tell you that the FBI has already seized our physical files under a fraudulent court order?" Chloe asked urgently, sliding into the vinyl booth.
Marcus smiled faintly, pulling a small laptop from his leather briefcase and placing it on the table.
"I expected nothing less from Richard Vance. He's bought half the judges in the Midwest," Marcus remarked casually.
Ethan pulled the encrypted flash drive from his pocket, sliding it across the laminate table toward the journalist.
"Every transaction, every offshore shell company, and every falsified EPA report is backed up on that drive," Ethan stated.
Marcus plugged the drive into his laptop, entering a secure decryption key as the screen flickered with streams of raw code.
For several agonizing minutes, the journalist scrolled through the massive database in absolute silence.
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His eyebrows rose higher with every folder he opened, a triumphant grin slowly spreading across his face.
"My God... this isn't just a corporate oversight. This is a multi-billion-dollar racketeering conspiracy," Marcus whispered in awe.
