Chapter 4 - The Blackout Begins
Arthur Thorne leapt out of his chair so fast he knocked his crystal glass onto the floor, sending champagne splattering over his leather shoes.
"What did you just say?!" Arthur roared, sprinting across the terrace toward me, his face turning an unhealthy shade of purple. "Protocol Blackout?! That's an emergency defense auditing code! You can't trigger that! Only the Department of Defense procurement committee can execute an audit!"
I held the satellite pad in my hand, its blue LED light pulsing steadily as the encrypted connection confirmed the transmission.
"I am the Vice Chair of the DoD Procurement Audit Committee, Mr. Thorne," I said, looking him dead in the eye. "And as of three seconds ago, every federal contract held by Thorne Global Security has been temporarily frozen pending a full forensic investigation into corporate misconduct, assault of a federal officer, and security compliance violations."
"YOU CAN'T DO THIS!" Marcus screamed, stepping up beside his father, his previous panic instantly morphing back into desperate, cornered rage. "My family controls twenty percent of the private security contracts in Virginia! We have senators on our board! My father knows the Governor!"
"Your father knows the Governor," I replied smoothly, "but I know the Secretary of Defense. And he doesn't like people who throw wine at his field officers."
Before Marcus could answer, Arthur Thorne’s encrypted cell phone began to ring inside his jacket pocket.
It wasn't a standard ringtone. It was the high-priority emergency tone used by corporate legal teams during an active crisis.
Arthur’s hands shook so violently he nearly dropped the phone as he pulled it out. He pressed it to his ear, his voice tight. "Hello? Marcus, what's going on at the office?"
The voice coming through the speaker was so loud that even the guests sitting three tables away could hear the frantic panic in the general counsel's voice.
"ARTHUR! WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!" the lawyer screamed over the line. "FEDERAL MARSHALS JUST PULLED UP TO OUR HEADQUARTERS IN ALEXANDRIA! THEY'RE SERVING A COMPREHENSIVE ASSET FREEZE WARRANT! OUR BANK ACCOUNTS ARE LOCKED! THE DOD PROCUREMENT PORTAL JUST TERMINATED OUR CREDENTIALS!"
Arthur dropped the phone onto the flagstone.
It hit the stone, bounced once, and lay there, the panicked shouts of his chief legal officer continuing to echo through the quiet garden.
The fifty guests surrounding the terrace began to whisper frantically. Two board members immediately stood up, pulled out their cell phones, and walked briskly toward the parking lot without saying goodbye to Arthur or his wife.
"Arthur..." Marcus’s mother gasped, clutching her husband’s arm, her designer hat trembling in the breeze. "Arthur, what is happening? Fix this! Tell her to fix this!"
Arthur Thorne stared at me, his eyes wide with absolute terror. He knew what an asset freeze meant for a company that carried forty million dollars in monthly payroll debt. Without access to their credit lines, Thorne Global Security would be insolvent in less than seventy-two hours.
He looked at his son, then looked at me, and did something no one in Great Falls had ever seen Arthur Thorne do.
He dropped to his knees on the stone floor.
"Commander Vance..." Arthur pleaded, his voice cracking with desperation, his hands raised in a frantic gesture. "Please... I beg you. My son is an idiot. He's spoiled, he's arrogant, he doesn't know what he's doing! Don't destroy my life's work because of his stupidity!"
"Dad!" Marcus yelled, his face red with humiliation. "Get up! Don't kneel to her!"
"SHUT YOUR MOUTH, MARCUS!" Arthur screamed, turning his head and glaring at his son with pure hatred. "YOU JUST DESTROYED THIS FAMILY! YOU BROUGHT THIS ON US WITH YOUR ARROGANT, DRUNKEN MOUTH!"
Chloe burst into fresh, hysterical sobs, grabbing Marcus’s arm. "Marcus! Do something! Unfreeze his money! We're supposed to buy our house next week!"
Marcus stood there, trapped between his kneeling father, his hysterical fiancée, and fifty guests who were actively recording the scene on their smartphones.
I picked up my silk coat from the floor, draped it carefully over my left arm, and looked down at Arthur Thorne.
"The audit will proceed, Mr. Thorne," I said calmly. "If your company has operated legally, you have nothing to fear. If you have misused government funds or engaged in fraud, you will face federal court."
I turned on my heel and began walking slowly down the stone steps toward the grass.
"Zariah! Wait!" my mother called out, running toward the edge of the terrace, her hands reaching out toward me. "Zariah, please! Think of your sister! If Marcus loses his company, Chloe’s life will be ruined!"
I stopped at the bottom of the steps, looking back over my shoulder at the woman who had sat silently while a stranger threw wine in my face.
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"Chloe’s life isn't ruined, Mom," I said softly. "She just has to learn how to buy her own silk dresses."
I turned my back on them and walked across the green lawn toward the entrance gates, where two black government SUVs were already pulling up to the curb.
