CHAPTER 8: THE TRAP CLOSES
Vane’s lawyer immediately reached across the table to grab the drive, but Vane slammed his hand flat onto the marble surface to stop him.
“You’re bluffing,” Vane said, his voice dropping into a harsh, venomous register. “That mission was classified at the highest level of national security. Even if those records exist, you can’t bring them into a civil court without violating federal treason statutes yourself. You’d go to prison right alongside me.”
“That’s where you’re mistaken, Sterling,” a voice boomed from the doorway.
The frosted glass doors swung open. General Elise Warren stepped into the room, flanked by two armed federal marshals and an attorney from the Department of Justice’s National Security Division.
Vane stood up so quickly his heavy leather chair crashed backward onto the floor. “General Warren... this is a private corporate negotiation. You have no jurisdiction here.”
“I have every jurisdiction where national security and defense contractor integrity are concerned,” General Warren declared coldly, setting a federal warrant onto the center of the table. “At 0800 hours this morning, a federal grand jury returned a sealed indictment against you, Mr. Vane, for espionage, treason, and treasonous conspiracy relating to the sabotage of Operation Nightglass.”
Vane’s lead attorney took one look at the DOJ seal on the document and quietly closed his briefcase, taking a step back away from his client.
“You can’t do this!” Vane barked, his face flushing dark red with rising panic. “My contacts in the Senate will have your stars stripped before nightfall!”
“Your contacts in the Senate are currently being questioned by the FBI,” General Warren replied dryly. “As for the twenty-two percent equity debt Caleb Bennett incurred... under the National Defense Industrial Reserve Act, all contracts signed using fraudulent military technology as collateral are voided and seized by the Department of Defense. Meridian Systems remains whole, under the sole control of Captain Mara Bennett.”
Vane stared at me, his breathing ragged, his slick composure completely shattered as two marshals stepped forward to attach heavy steel handcuffs around his wrists.
“You dragged this out...” Vane spat through his teeth, his voice trembling with bitter rage as they forced his hands behind his back. “You let Caleb take the fall first... just to set this trap for me.”
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I stood up slowly, smoothing the front of my jacket, looking down at the man who had sold out my unit eleven years ago for a profit margin.
“You thought my service was my weakness, Mr. Vane,” I said softly. “You forgot that the first thing the Army taught me was how to draw the enemy into a crossfire.”
