Chapter 26 · The Crash Payment

The vault door clicks shut behind me. I shouldn't be here. Shouldn't have Claire's backup access card burning a hole in my jacket pocket. Shouldn't know the sixteen-digit override code Archer types every Thursday night when he thinks I'm asleep.

But I'm done playing safe.

The vault's small. Cold. LED strips run along the ceiling and turn everything blue-white, clinical, like an operating room. File cabinets line three walls. The fourth holds a standing desk with two monitors and a scanner. No windows. No cameras that I can see, but that doesn't mean much.

I go straight for the middle cabinet. Third drawer. Claire said Archer keeps hard copies of his offshore transfers here because digital leaves trails even VPNs can't fully scrub. My hands shake as I pull the drawer open.

Folders. Green tabs, red tabs, yellow tabs. Dates printed in small block letters. I flip through. June. July. August.

There.

September 14th.

Two days before the crash.

I pull the folder. It's thin. Inside, maybe six pages. The first is a wire transfer receipt. Fifty thousand USD to an account in the Caymans. Beneficiary listed as "J. Morrow.