Chapter 51 - The Dead Man's Switch
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Thorne stared at me in absolute, stunned silence. The howling wind suddenly felt incredibly loud.
"You're lying," Thorne scoffed, though the profound confidence in his voice had finally cracked. "A dead man's switch is a cinematic myth. It's a coward's bluff."
I tapped the screen of my smartphone, pulling up a highly complex, encrypted timer application. The bright red digital numbers were ticking down relentlessly.
00:14:32
"I have exactly fourteen minutes and thirty-two seconds to enter the override code," I informed him, pushing the phone toward the center of the table. "If you shoot me, the timer hits zero. The ledger goes public. The senators burn, the judges burn, and your entire shadow empire is completely obliterated in the morning news cycle."
Thorne stared at the glaring red numbers, a vein throbbing dangerously in his temple.
"You wouldn't dare," Thorne hissed, leaning forward. "If that ledger goes public, the syndicate will hunt you and your family to the ends of the earth. You will never be safe."
"I am already being hunted, Marcus!" I roared, slamming my fist onto the plastic table. "You hung a federal prosecutor from a crane! You ran my family off the road! You threatened to execute my son! If I'm going to die, I am absolutely going to ensure that I take your entire world down with me!"
The dynamic of the room shifted violently. Thorne was no longer in control. He was staring at a man with nothing left to lose.
"Call off your men at the hotel," I commanded, pointing at his phone. "Call them off right now, or I swear to God I will smash this phone and let the timer run out."
Thorne looked at his suppressed pistol, then at the ticking red numbers on my phone. He realized he was entirely trapped. If he killed me, he lost everything.
He slowly, furiously picked up his smartphone, hit a button on the screen, and spoke into the microphone.
"Stand down," Thorne ordered his men at the hotel, his voice vibrating with pure, unadulterated rage. "Evacuate the perimeter. Do not engage."
I watched the live video feed as the two men in the hotel hallway nodded, turned on their heels, and walked briskly out of frame.
"There," Thorne sneered, dropping the phone. "They are gone. Now, give me the override code, and we can discuss a new arrangement."
"I don't make arrangements with terrorists," I said coldly.
May you like
And then, I reached into my pocket and hit the panic button on my encrypted radio transmitter.
Now, Julian.
