2026-01-27 16:53:48Chapter Eight. Numbers in the Dark
Michael Krux POV
Six months had passed since the gates first closed behind me.
The days blurred into a steady rhythm of hard work, quiet lessons, and careful observation.
I was no longer the man who arrived here leaner, stronger, sharper, My shoulders filled the jumpsuit differently now, and the men who once stared with contempt now looked away when I walked past.
Voss had taught me more than survival.
He taught me leverage and tonight, the block was quiet, lights dimmed to red emergency glow because of that for me.
We sat at our usual table in the corner, no one else dared use it anymore. Voss placed a small folded paper between us.
I opened the letter to see a single string of numbers.
“Sixteen digits,” he said softly. “One account.
Memorize it, then tell me what you see.”
I studied the sequence until it locked in my mind. I tried to remember the build up Viss had taught me, how to read the figures, because he had said everything was a game of numbers and if one could crack the number, that’s an inevitable win.
It took me a long time and I didn’t see anything.
“There’s nothing here” I said, ready to give up when I noticed the patterns.
“It’s not random,” I said. “The last four digits match the first four of another account you taught me last week, they’re linked, Routing through the same Cayman trust.”
Voss’s eyes gleamed in the low light.
“Exactly. You’re starting to see the web.”
He slid another paper.
Then another
By 0200 I had connected seventeen accounts into a single chain, money moving silently across borders, hidden in charities, shell companies, and forgotten funds.
All of it untouched for years and waiting to be found.
“That’s $187 million,” Voss said.
“And it’s been sitting idle because no one knew how to claim it without waking the wrong people.”
I looked at him.
“I know how.” He raised an eyebrow.
I took the smuggled burner phone he kept hidden in the wall.
The guard Ramirez owed Voss a favor so he’d always leave the phone charged and ready.
I typed quickly routing codes, transfer instructions, layered through three different exchanges.
No alarms.
No traces.
Within eleven minutes, $2.4 million moved into a new account I’d opened under a name no one would connect to me.
The rest stayed hidden.
Voss watched the screen over my shoulder.
“You just earned your first piece of the empire,” he said. “Without anyone knowing.” He added.
I handed the phone back.
“Not yet,” I said.
“But soon.” I assured him, I was suddenly full of confidence.
The next morning, Ramirez approached our table during breakfast, he looked nervous, eyes darting.
“Boss,” he whispered to Voss. “The warden’s asking questions.
Someone noticed funds moving last night.
He’s threatening to lock down the block.”
Voss didn’t flinch, but I knew what to do, I stood up slowly.
“Tell the warden,” I said, voice calm and level, “that if he wants to know where the money went, he should check his own retirement account. I left him a little thank-you gift. $50,000 Clean and untraceable. He should enjoy it quietly… or explain to the IRS how a prison warden suddenly has new savings.”
Ramirez’s eyes widened.
I leaned closer and whispered, “And remind him, I still have the receipts.”
With that. Ramirez hurried away.
Voss looked at me for a long moment.
“You’re learning,” he said.
I sat back down and nodded, “it’s all thanks to you.”
The block watched us now, not with fear, but with something closer to respect.
Lunch arrived with extra portions for both of us, yet one asked why.
That afternoon, the warden walked past our tier during rounds.
He didn’t stop. Didn’t speak.
But when he passed my cell, he gave the smallest nod in acknowledgment.
I had just turned the head of the prison in my favor without raising a hand.
And the clock was ticking.
One thousand six hundred and forty days left, but the game had already begun to shift.
Tomorrow, the guards would start bringing me messages from the outside world.
One of them would carry a name I hadn’t heard in months.
Layla.
And when it arrives, I’m not sure what it’ll come with.
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