Chapter 33 - The Midnight Meeting
The rain began to fall heavily by midnight, drumming a relentless, erratic rhythm against our bedroom window. Anthony lay awake beside me, staring up at the dark ceiling. I could feel the tension radiating off his body. Without a word, he slipped out of bed, pulled on a dark hoodie, and quietly unlocked the front door.
I was already awake, having heard every movement. Slipping into a jacket of my own, I followed him out into the misty night air.
He wasn't going far. Just down the block, parked near the edge of the municipal parkway where the dark gray SUV had been spotted days earlier. A solitary figure was leaning against a rusted iron lamppost, smoking a cigarette in the downpour.
As Anthony approached, the figure turned. It wasn't Victor Vance, nor was it one of the corporate proxies we had faced in court. It was a woman with sharp, angular features, wearing a sleek trench coat that seemed entirely immune to the rain.
I stayed hidden in the shadows of a large oak tree, straining my ears to catch their conversation over the sound of the falling rain.
"...you're playing a dangerous game, Mr. Brooks," the woman said, her voice smooth and chillingly calm.
"You're trespassing on my property, and you're terrorizing my family," Anthony replied, his voice dangerously low. "If you have something to say, say it to my face instead of sending cheap text messages to my wife."
The woman let out a dry, humorless chuckle, taking a slow drag from her cigarette. "We aren't here to terrorize you, Anthony. We're here to offer a business proposition. The house, the lawsuits, the threats—it’s all just noise. A distraction to see how you would react under pressure."
"A distraction for what?" Anthony demanded.
"For the real asset," she whispered, stepping closer to him under the amber glow of the lamppost. "The research your father left behind before he passed away. The proprietary software blueprints that your family has been guarding for a decade. Hand over the encrypted hard drive, and the municipal claims on your house disappear tonight. You can live in peace."
From my hiding place, my heart hammered against my ribs. My father’s old research? The one Anthony’s family had supposedly buried years ago to protect the tech industry from corporate monopolization?
May you like
Anthony didn't hesitate. "Go to hell."
The woman’s smile faded instantly, replaced by a mask of cold indifference. "Then don't say we didn't warn you, Mr. Brooks. Phase two is already in motion. And unlike the last time, you won't see it coming."
