Chapter 9 - The Wall Street Tremor
By noon, the financial markets in New York experienced a localized earthquake.
Major Bishop’s global network executed a synchronized digital strike that bypassed standard firewall defenses, instantly locking primary liquidity channels for Kensington Construction, Sterling Banking, and Holbrook Energy. Simultaneously, unredacted dossiers detailing the assault on Nora—along with audio confessions from Preston Caldwell—were dropped directly onto the servers of every major independent investigative news outlet in the country.
I sat in a quiet diner three miles from the hospital, watching a live financial news broadcast on a wall-mounted television screen.
The news anchor looked pale, fumbling with his papers as a breaking banner crawled across the screen:
BREAKING: Massive Federal Probe Targets Kensington and Caldwell Dynasties Following Unprecedented Multi-Billion-Dollar Asset Freeze and Corporate Fraud Leaks.
Outside the window, a black sedan slowly rolled past the diner, its tinted windows creeping down an inch. Professional surveillance. They were already looking for me.
My phone buzzed on the formica table. An encrypted text from Bishop:
May you like
“We’ve triggered a defensive response. The Meridian Group just deployed a private tactical retrieval team to the hospital to secure Nora. Get back there now.”
My blood ran cold. I dropped a twenty-dollar bill on the table and bolted for the door.
