I BUILT THE UNDERWORLD WHILE YOU CALLED ME USELESS

Chapter 3

Thorne stood, but his head remained slightly lowered. He ignored Boxer, who was still standing like a coiled spring beside Lucian. "The board doesn't know I’m here, sir. I came the moment the short-sell hit the wires. They think it was a localized glitch. I knew better."

"You knew it was me," Lucian stated. It wasn't a question.

"Only one person could navigate the sub-layers of the Vale architecture that quickly," Thorne replied. He gestured toward the black bag Lucian held. "And I suspect the hardware in that bag is how you did it. Is it the 'Ghost' protocol? Did you actually stabilize it?"

"Why do you care, Julian? You work for Apex now. You’re supposed to be celebrating the Vales’ funeral."

Thorne stepped closer, his eyes darting to the guards by the SUVs to ensure they were out of earshot. "Apex is a sinking ship of a different variety, and you know it. They’ve over-leveraged themselves trying to swallow Arthur Vale’s commercial debt. If you have the data harvested from those servers... if you have the 'Ghost'... you don't just have the Vales' secrets. You have the master key to the entire city's financial infrastructure."

"And you want it," Lucian said.

"I’m authorized to offer you fifteen million dollars," Thorne said, his voice low and urgent. "Right now. No questions. No trace. We take the bag, you take the money, and you can disappear back into whatever hole you've been hiding in for the last three years."

Lucian let out a short, dry laugh. "Fifteen million? Is that what my life is worth to Apex?"

"It’s a starting point!" Thorne hissed. "Twenty? Twenty-five? Name the number, Lucian. We know what's in that bag. You’ve been pulling processors from the decommissioned 9G racks. You’re building a bridge into the encrypted ledgers that even the NSA can’t touch."

"You’re desperate," Lucian observed.

"I'm being practical! The market is in a tailspin! If Apex doesn't get that data, we're next on the chopping block when the SEC finishes with Arthur Vale."

Lucian turned to Boxer. "Boxer, what do you think? Should I take the twenty-five million?"

Boxer spat into the mud. "Sounds like a lot of money for a bag of junk, but this guy looks like he’d sell his mother for a nickel. I wouldn't trust him to hand over a sandwich, let alone twenty mil."

"Smart man," Lucian said. He turned back to Thorne. "The answer is no."

Thorne’s face twisted. The mask of the subservient executive slipped, revealing the jagged edge of a desperate predator. "Lucian, don't be a fool. You're a vagrant. You're eating out of cans. You take this deal, or I have my men take that bag by force. I’m trying to be respectful because of who you were, but don’t push me."

"By force?" Lucian tilted his head. "Julian, look at your watch."

"What?"

"Look at the time. Precisely."

Thorne looked down at his Rolex. "It’s 10:28. So what?"

"At 10:29, your personal offshore account in the Cayman Islands—the one ending in 4492—will be drained to zero," Lucian said.

Thorne froze. "You... how do you know that account number?"

"10:29," Lucian counted down. "Three. Two. One."

Thorne’s phone buzzed violently in his pocket. He ripped it out, his thumbs blurring over the screen. His face went from pale to a sickly, translucent white. "Zero... it's all gone. Six million dollars. Gone!"

"It’s not gone," Lucian said. "It’s currently sitting in a holding escrow. I can put it back. Or I can send it to the Internal Revenue Service with a detailed note about your 'consulting' fees from the Vale-Apex merger. What do you think they’ll do to a COO who’s been skimming from both sides of a corporate war?"

Thorne’s knees hit the ground again, but this time it wasn't out of respect. It was pure, unadulterated terror. "You... you’re a monster."

"No," Lucian said, stepping forward and towering over him. "I'm the guy who’s buying you."

"Buying me?" Thorne whispered.

"I don't want your fifteen million. I don't need it. I have more money than the city of New York just by tapping a few keys on this 'trash' hardware. What I need is a pair of eyes inside Apex."

"You want me to spy?"

"I want you to be my ghost," Lucian said. "You will go back to the board. You will tell them that the 'vagrant' was a dead end. You will tell them the data was corrupted. And every time the CEO of Apex takes a breath, I want to know the volume of air he moved."

"They'll kill me if they find out," Thorne stammered.

"And I'll ruin you if you don't," Lucian countered. "I’ll give you back your six million. In fact, I’ll double it every month you stay useful. But the moment you lie to me? The moment you try to play both sides? I won't just drain your accounts. I’ll leak your browser history to your wife and your tax returns to the Feds."

Thorne looked up, his eyes wide and shattered. He looked at the SUVs, then back at Lucian. "What's the first move?"

"Arthur Vale," Lucian said. "He’s going to try to liquidate his wife’s estate to cover the margin calls. Don't let him. Block every transaction. Make him feel the walls closing in."

"He's already losing his mind," Thorne whispered. "The stock crash today... it broke him."

"Good," Lucian said. "Now get out of here. And take your circus with you."

Thorne scrambled to his feet, signaled his men, and piled back into the SUV. The fleet roared to life, tires screeching as they backed out of the narrow alley, leaving Lucian and Boxer in the silence of the rain.

"You really just bought a CEO like a bag of chips," Boxer said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"He was already for sale," Lucian replied. "He just didn't know who the buyer was."