The Shadow Commander Returns

Chapter 7. Ruin in the dark

The entire ballroom went still for a moment. The heavy golden pen slipped from Tony Garrison's fingers and fell to the ground.

Susan stared at Director Hayes, her jaw wide open, her face draining of all color. "W-What did you just say?" she stuttered, her voice shaking uncontrollably.

"Blacklisted? Canceled? There has to be a mistake."

"There is no mistake, Miss Garrison," Director Hayes replied coldly into the microphone, his voice echoing off every crystal chandelier in the room. "By order of our new Chairman, Zucker Enterprises has severed all ties with the Garrison family. Your credit lines are revoked, your contracts are null and void, and our legal team is filing multi-million-dollar lawsuits for financial fraud against your firm."

Chaos erupted in the hall. Flashbulbs exploded like lightning as dozens of reporters rushed toward the stage, shoving their cameras and microphones into Tony and Susan's panicked faces.

"Mr. Garrison. Is your family business completely bankrupt?" a reporter shouted.

"Miss Garrison. How will you pay back your investors?" another yelled.

"Get back. Get away from us." Tony screamed wildly, waving his arms in sheer panic as heavy sweat poured down his face. He lunged forward and grabbed Director Hayes’ suit lapels. "You can't do this to us. Who gave this order?! Who is your Chairman? Let me speak to him right now."

Director Hayes slapped Tony’s hands away with pure disgust. "You are not worthy to speak his name. Security, escort these people out of the hotel."

The four heavy security guards who had thrown Julian out fifteen minutes ago stepped onto the stage. Without hesitation, they grabbed Tony and Susan by their arms, twisting them firmly behind their backs.

"Release me. Do you know who I am?" Susan shrieked, kicking her high heels wildly as she was dragged down the stage steps. "I am Susan Garrison. I am rich. You can't touch me!"

"Mom. Help us." Tony yelled as their mother, Monica, clutched her chest and fainted onto the carpet, surrounded by gasping guests.

The security team didn't show an ounce of mercy. They shoved Tony and Susan through the side exit and threw them forcefully out into the rain-soaked alley behind the hotel.

SPLASH!

Susan crashed onto the wet pavement, her fifty-thousand-dollar silk dress soaking in filthy, muddy water. Her diamond necklace tangled in her wet hair, and her mascara ran down her cheeks in black streaks.

Tony landed hard beside her, his velvet tuxedo covered in dirt.

"My dress... my necklace..." Susan sobbed, shivering uncontrollably in the cold downpour.

Before either of them could stand, their cellphones began ringing in their pockets.

Tony answered his phone with a shaking hand. "H-Hello?"

"Tony. It's over." his senior accountant screamed over the speaker. "The city bank just froze all our accounts. They are repossessing the office building, the luxury cars, and your mansion in twenty minutes. We are completely ruined."

"No. No, wait!" Tony begged, but the line went dead.

Susan’s phone buzzed next. She snatched it up, her voice shrill with terror. "Hello? Who is this?"

"Miss Garrison, this is the First National Bank," a stern voice said. "Your credit cards have been canceled. Furthermore, police officers are on their way to confiscate the diamond necklace you bought yesterday under fraudulent company credit."

"No, please. I'll pay. I'll pay." Susan wailed, but the agent hung up without another word.

Her world had crashed down around her in a matter of seconds. Eleven years of greed, arrogance, and cruelty had collapsed into dust in a single hour.

"The Chairman..." Susan whispered, clutching her phone with white knuckles. "It's the new Chairman of Zucker Enterprises. He's the only one who can stop this. I have to call him! I have to beg him."

She dialed the emergency corporate line for Zucker Enterprises, weeping loudly into the receiver. "Please. Put me through to the Chairman. I beg you. Tell him Susan Garrison is on the line. There's been a terrible mistake."

Across the street, parked silently under the shadow of a large tree, sat a sleek, black sedan.

Inside the quiet back seat, General Harrison held a satellite tablet that was receiving the redirected call. He turned to Julian, who was looking out the tinted window at Susan crying in the mud.

"Commander," Harrison said softly. "Miss Garrison is on the line. She is begging to speak to the Chairman."

Julian took the satellite phone from Harrison’s hand. He pressed the speaker button, but did not speak immediately.

"Mr. Chairman?" Susan’s sobbing voice filled the quiet interior of the car. "Please. Have mercy on us. We don't know what we did to offend you. Why are you destroying my family? What did we do wrong?"

Julian stared through the dark glass at his ex-wife kneeling in the filthy rainwater, completely broken.

"You spent eleven years stepping on others, Susan," Julian spoke into the receiver, his voice flat, low, and cold as a tombstone. "You betrayed the people who loved you, and you worshiped money above human life. Now, you will learn what it feels like to have nothing."

Susan froze in the rain.

The sound of that quiet, steady voice made her heart skip a beat. She blinked through her tears, staring wildly at her phone screen. "Wait... that voice... Who are you? Do I know you?"

Julian did not answer. He pressed the red button, ending the call, and tossed the phone onto the leather seat.

Out in the alley, Susan stared at her dead phone screen, screaming in absolute horror and frustration as the rain poured down on her face. She was completely ruined, and she didn't even know who had struck the blow.

"Drive," Julian ordered quietly.

The black sedan pulled away smoothly into the night, leaving the sobbing Garrisons behind in the dark alley.

***

At the same time, six miles away in a hidden underground bunker, Governor Chadwick Lincoln was pacing frantically across a concrete floor.

Chadwick’s left arm was wrapped tightly in a thick medical cast from where Julian had broken it the night before. Heavy sweat soaked through his shirt as he stared at three computer monitors showing his political syndicate burning to the ground.

"What do you mean Captain Vance is gone?" Chadwick roared at his assistant, his voice cracking with sheer panic.

"How can twenty police officers vanish into thin air?"

"They are gone, Governor." the assistant stuttered, holding a trembling tablet. "Their records were wiped. Our offshore bank accounts were seized forty minutes ago. All our political allies in the Senate have blocked your number."

Chadwick slammed his uninjured right fist onto the metal desk, screaming in agony and fury. "Who is doing this to me? Is it the military? Is it the federal government?"

"We don't know, sir." the assistant whimpered. "It's like an invisible monster is tearing down everything you built. We can't track them. We can't fight them."

Chadwick’s eyes turned bloodshot and wild with insane desperation. He knew he was trapped. His money was gone, his political power was shattered, and an unseen enemy was hunting him down.

"If I am going down," Chadwick growled, his teeth grinding together in pure rage, "I am taking that bastard Julian Bennett down with me."

Chadwick reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a heavy, encrypted satellite phone—a red line reserved for the underground criminal underworld.

He dialed a foreign number with shaking fingers.

The call connected after one ring.

"Governor Lincoln," a deep voice rasped over the line. "You are using the emergency channel."

"I need the Bloodhound Squad." Chadwick screamed into the phone, his face twisted in pure malice.

"I want your top mercenary strike team. Fifty heavily armed men."

"The Bloodhound Squad does not come cheap," the mercenary leader replied coldly. "Fifty million dollars. Cash."

"I will give you my secret diamond stash." Chadwick barked. "I don't care about the price. I want you to track down Julian Bennett's mother and sister. Find where he hid those two women. Kidnap them, bring them to my bunker, and slaughter anyone standing in your way."

"Consider it done," the mercenary leader said. "My men are already moving. We will tear Sunspire City apart until we find his family."

The line went dead.

Chadwick let out a wild, crazy laugh, leaning against his desk as tears of relief filled his eyes.

"You think you won, Julian Bennett? You think you can protect them? I'll have your mother and sister bleeding at my feet before sunrise."

Chadwick had no idea what he was getting himself into.