Chapter 45 - The Betrayal of Memory
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The chop shop was a sprawling, chaotic cavern of grease, stripped car frames, and buzzing fluorescent lights. Julian’s contact, a heavily tattooed man named Rex, didn't ask a single question. He simply handed us the keys to a nondescript, silver minivan with perfectly tinted windows and swapped our license plates.
"It's a ghost car," Rex grunted, wiping his hands on a rag. "Not registered in any database. You have a full tank. Don't bring it back."
We loaded Amy and Frederick into the back of the minivan. I took the driver's seat, gripping the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white.
"We need to get the ledger," Julian said from the passenger seat. "The bank opens at 8:00 AM. If we don't have it by noon, Thorne will start executing the people we love. He won't stop at us."
I looked at the digital clock on the dashboard. It was 4:30 AM.
"There's a problem," I admitted, the weight of my own paranoia finally crushing me.
"What problem?" Amy asked from the back seat, her voice tight.
"The biometric vault at the Swiss-affiliated bank requires two keys for entry," I explained, staring blankly out the windshield. "My retinal scan, and a physical, encrypted keycard."
Julian frowned. "Okay, so where is the keycard?"
I swallowed hard, the bitter taste of betrayal flooding my mouth.
"When I buried the ledger fourteen months ago, I was paranoid," I confessed slowly. "I knew that if I was ever captured and tortured, I might break and give up the location. So, I gave the physical keycard to the one person I believed was absolutely, untouchably loyal to our family. The one person whose legal privilege would protect her from being searched by the feds."
Julian stared at me, the horrific realization dawning on his face.
"You gave the keycard to Evelyn," Julian whispered.
"I did."
"The woman who just planted a GPS tracker on my car to have us assassinated," Julian stated, his voice rising in sheer disbelief. "You gave the only key to our survival to the traitor."
Amy let out a soft, despairing sob from the backseat.
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"We can't just walk away from this, David," Julian said, his eyes darkening with a lethal resolve. "We have to confront her. We have to walk straight into the snake's den."
I put the minivan in gear. "I know. I'm going to set up a meeting."
