Ron Donaldo: Rise Of The Apex Don

Chapter 42

"Agent Black," Marcus said softly, taking a slow step toward her. "The world is a very complicated place. Things are not always black and white."

"The numbers are black and white, Mr. Thorne," Vera replied firmly. 

"Yes, yes, the public numbers are," Marcus agreed. He lowered his voice to a quiet, secret whisper. "But you are a smart woman. You know how the game is played. The government pays you, what? One hundred thousand dollars a year? You work eighty hours a week just to pay your mortgage?"

Vera did not answer. She just watched him carefully through her thick glasses. 

Marcus stepped closer to the desk. "I can change your life today, Agent Black. Right now. In this room."

Vera raised an eyebrow. "Are you attempting to bribe a federal agent, Mr. Thorne? That is another twenty years in prison."

"It is only a bribe if someone finds out," Marcus smiled, feeling a tiny spark of hope. "The FBI is still downstairs. We are completely alone up here. Look around. The company is dead. The money is gone. But... not all of it."

Marcus walked over to his open wall safe. He pulled out the small black ledger book. He held it up so Vera could see it. 

"The fifty billion dollars you found in the files? That was The Director’s money," Marcus explained quickly. "But over the last five years, I skimmed a little bit off the top for myself. I hid it perfectly. Not even The Director knows about it. Not even Ron Donaldo’s hackers found it."

Vera looked at the black ledger book. "Secret accounts?"

"Yes," Marcus nodded happily. "Private accounts in the Cayman Islands. Untraceable ghost accounts. I have fifty million dollars sitting in clean, pure cash. Nobody knows it exists except me."

Marcus walked back to the desk. He leaned closely toward Vera. 

"If you help me," Marcus whispered. "If you take those official SEC papers and throw them into that shredder right now... I will give you ten million dollars. I will write the account numbers and the passwords down for you. You can walk out of this building, quit your job, and disappear to a beach in Hawaii forever."

Vera looked at Marcus for a long, silent moment. She looked at the shredder. Then, she looked at the black ledger in his hand. 

Vera sighed softly. She slowly closed her fake folder of papers. 

"Ten million dollars is a very large amount of money," Vera said quietly. She made her voice sound nervous, exactly like a government worker who was tempted to break the law. "How do I know you are telling the truth? How do I know you actually have the money?"

"I can prove it!" Marcus said excitedly. He realized she was taking the bait. He was going to win. He was going to buy his freedom. 

Marcus slammed the black ledger open on the glass desk. 

"Look!" Marcus pointed a shaking finger at the pages. "Account number 449-882 at the Grand Cayman Reserve! Account number 771-009 at the Swiss National Trust! See? The balances are right there! Twenty million! Thirty million!"

"And these accounts are completely untraceable?" Vera asked, leaning closer to look at the numbers. 

"Yes!" Marcus laughed, a crazy, desperate laugh. "I used a dozen fake shell companies to wash the money. I used fake names. I stole it directly from Sterling Tech’s research budget over the last five years. It is completely clean cash, Agent Black. Nobody can ever trace it back to me. Now, do we have a deal?"

Vera looked at the black ledger. Then she looked at Marcus. 

Slowly, a very real, very cold smile spread across Vera’s face. The strict, nervous government agent completely disappeared. The master con artist of the Iron Legion appeared. 

"We do not have a deal, Marcus," Vera said smoothly. 

Marcus frowned. "What? Why not? Do you want more? I will give you twenty million!"

"I do not want your money, Marcus," Vera said. She reached out and placed her hand on the heavy black briefcase sitting on the desk. 

She slowly turned the briefcase around so it was facing Marcus. 

Right in the center of the briefcase lock, hidden perfectly in the silver metal, was a tiny, glowing red light. 

Blink. Blink. Blink. 

It was a high-definition, wide-angle camera lens. 

Marcus stared at the blinking red light. His brain completely stopped working. He did not understand. 

"What... what is that?" Marcus whispered. 

"That is a camera, Marcus," Vera said, stepping back from the desk. "And it is not recording to a tape. It is connected to a live, encrypted satellite feed."

Marcus felt the room spin. He looked at the camera, then at Vera. "A live feed? To who?"

"To everyone," Vera smiled beautifully. 

…

Down in the black armored truck in the alley, Ron Donaldo sat in his leather chair, watching the main computer screen. 

The live video feed from Vera’s briefcase was playing in high definition. 

But it was not just playing in the truck. 

Silas was typing furiously on his keyboards. He was routing the video feed directly onto the internet. 

"The feed is live, Sir!" Silas shouted happily. "We hijacked the main broadcast signal for the local news. We sent the private link directly to the FBI cyber-crime unit! We sent it to the real SEC headquarters in Washington D.C.!"

Ron watched the screen. He saw the look of absolute, soul-crushing terror on Marcus Thorne’s face.