Chapter 5 - The Drive Was Never in My Blouse
Audrey’s eyes dropped to my back.
“You had it.”
“No.”
Her composure cracked.
She had torn my blouse because intelligence fed her a false report claiming I had hidden the evidence inside it.
The real drive was already secured in a Navy evidence vault.
Admiral Thorne had created the rumor to expose whoever attempted to take it.
Audrey had taken the bait in front of hundreds of witnesses.
Arthur looked at his daughter with open disgust.
“You lost control over a rumor?”
“You told me she would come alone.”
“I told you to do nothing.”
Their alliance fractured in a single exchange.
Below us, Navy personnel boarded Legacy.
The yacht’s engines started.
A figure appeared on deck and ran toward the helm.
Rear Admiral Peter Vale.
He wore civilian clothes and carried a metal case.
Security officers ordered him to stop.
He raised a pistol.
Guests screamed and moved away from the windows.
Vale fired once into the air and forced the yacht away from the dock.
A Navy patrol craft blocked the marina entrance.
Legacy struck the seawall and spun sideways.
Vale disappeared below deck.
Arthur gripped the back of a chair.
“That ship contains classified prototypes.”
“Illegal prototypes?” I asked.
He did not answer.
I knew the yacht.
As a child, I spent summers aboard it.
There was a concealed storage compartment beneath the aft cabin, accessible through a hydraulic panel disguised as polished mahogany.
Arthur had shown it to me when I was twelve.
He called it the family vault.
I told Admiral Thorne.
A boarding team entered the lower deck.
Moments later, Commander Ellis received a radio update.
“They found Vale.”
“Alive?”
“Yes. He surrendered.”
“And the case?”
“Empty.”
Audrey exhaled.
Too quickly.
Vale had not carried the real evidence.
He had carried a decoy.
A search of the hidden compartment revealed blood, medical supplies, three passports, and a satellite phone.
The phone’s most recent call had been placed ten minutes earlier.
To the ballroom.
Arthur’s private earpiece vibrated.
Everyone looked at him.
He slowly removed it.
The screen showed an incoming encrypted message.
Your daughter failed. Proceed with Clarissa protocol.
Arthur looked at me.
Not with surprise.
May you like
With fear.
📖 The conspiracy was larger than Audrey and Vale, and someone had just ordered Arthur to activate a plan specifically designed for Clarissa. 👇
