Chapter 14 - The Encryption
Caitlyn stared at the terrifying red warning glaring on her laptop screen. Marcus Vance was not trying to save her; he was trying to rob Damian blind and strip away the only financial protection the Hamilton empire had against the rival families. If she handed over the master administrative codes, The Commission would drain billions of dollars in legitimate assets, leaving Damian completely defenseless against a full-scale mafia war.
She grabbed her encrypted cell phone—the one Damian had specifically designed for her with untraceable military software. She dialed his private, direct line. Her heart hammered wildly against her ribs as the phone rang exactly once before being answered.
"Caitlyn," Damian's deep, urgent voice filled her ear. He sounded breathless, as if he had been waiting by the phone for three entire days just hoping she would call.
"Damian, listen to me very carefully," Caitlyn said, her tone sharp and professional, slipping effortlessly back into her role as his trusted partner. "The Commission just sent a fixer named Marcus Vance to Noah's clinic. He is posing as an FBI agent."
She heard a sharp, furious intake of breath on the other end of the line. "Are you hurt? Is Noah safe? I am sending Vincent with a heavily armed extraction team right now."
"We are perfectly fine," Caitlyn reassured him quickly. "He did not attack us. He tried to manipulate me. He wants my master access codes. He threatened to freeze Noah's medical trust if I didn't cooperate."
"I will kill him," Damian promised, the lethal, terrifying boss instantly returning to the surface. "I will tear him apart with my bare hands."
"No, Damian, wait," Caitlyn ordered, her mind racing with a brilliant, dangerous plan. "We have an opportunity here. The Commission thinks I am angry enough at you to betray the company. They think I am a vulnerable, terrified secretary."
Damian went completely silent on the line. He knew exactly what she was implying, and he absolutely hated it. "Caitlyn, I am not letting you use yourself as bait. It is too dangerous."
"You trusted me to manage your entire financial empire," Caitlyn argued fiercely. "Now you need to trust me to protect it. I can write a Trojan horse algorithm into a fake set of access codes. When Vance plugs the codes into The Commission's mainframe, it will not drain our accounts. It will give me a backdoor to drain theirs."
Damian let out a long, heavy sigh. He was terrified for her safety, but he also deeply respected her brilliant, tactical mind. "If you do this, you do it entirely on my terms. Vincent and I will be in the room. We will be the shadows on the wall."
"Deal," Caitlyn agreed, a small smile finally breaking through the tension on her face.
She spent the next six hours typing furiously on her laptop, utilizing every advanced coding technique she had ever learned. She crafted a masterpiece of digital deception—a virus disguised as a golden key.
At exactly eleven-thirty at night, she picked up the blank business card and dialed the number on the back.
"Agent Thorne," Marcus Vance answered smoothly.
"I have the codes," Caitlyn said, injecting exactly the right amount of manufactured fear into her voice. "But I will not give them to you over the phone. I want to meet in person to guarantee my brother's protection."
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"Very smart, Ms. Elmore," Vance chuckled. "There is an abandoned subway maintenance station under 42nd Street. Meet me there in one hour. Come alone."
Caitlyn hung up the phone and looked at the blinking cursor on her screen. She was about to walk directly into the lion's den, but for the first time in her life, she was not afraid. She had the most dangerous man in the city standing firmly in her corner.
