Chương 72 - The Silicon Trap
Three weeks later, Marcus returned to the Stanford campus in Palo Alto to finalize preparations for his upcoming keynote presentation at the global tech symposium. On the surface, the campus was an idyllic picture of academic excellence, lined with eucalyptus trees and historic sandstone archways. But beneath the veneer of student life, Marcus felt the unmistakable prickle of being watched.
While walking back from the advanced computing lab late one evening, a sleek, unmarked black sedan idled slowly alongside him near the quad. The tinted window rolled down an inch, revealing the cold glare of a digital camera lens.
Instead of running, Marcus stopped dead in his tracks. He pulled out his phone, activated a pre-programmed emergency beacon linked directly to Damian’s private security grid in Chicago, and walked deliberately toward the vehicle.
Before the driver could accelerate, Marcus tapped sharply on the reinforced glass window. "You're wasting your time following me," Marcus said, his voice completely steady, forged from years of surviving the harshest streets of Chicago. "If you want to talk to the Vance family, make an appointment."
The window rolled down fully, revealing a sharp-featured man in a tailored Italian suit with a menacing scar running along his jawline. "You're harder to corner than your mentor thinks, kid," the man sneered. "Dmitri Rostov sends his regards. He wants his financial ledgers back, and he’s willing to burn your entire foundation to the ground to get them."
Before the man could finish his sentence, the screech of tires echoed across the courtyard as two matte-black SUVs—driven by Damian’s elite West Coast security detail—converged on the sedan from both directions, trapping it completely against the curb.
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The scar-faced operative cursed, slamming his foot on the gas and managing to vault the curb just in time to escape into the California night, leaving behind a cloud of burning rubber and a clear message: the war had officially begun.
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