Chapter 27 - THE CARTEL IN THE SHADOWS
The man behind the threat was Vincent Rossi, a ruthless corporate raider and private prison investor out of Albany who had quietly funneled millions into dummy shell corporations disguised as "educational infrastructure grants." Rossi believed Daniel Walker was nothing more than an aging, defenseless father living on a quiet suburban street. He had no idea who he was poking.
Rossi sat in his high-rise Manhattan office overlooking the Hudson River, sipping scotch, feeling invincible. His chief enforcer, a cold-blooded fixer named Marcus Gallo, stood by the window.
"Is the message delivered?" Rossi asked, swirling the amber liquid in his glass.
"Placed right in his mailbox," Gallo replied with a smirk. "The old man will fold. Nobody risks their only daughter over a state audit."
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"Good," Rossi smiled. "If she doesn't drop the New York audit by Monday, make an example of her research assistant. Let them know we mean business."
What Rossi failed to realize was that Frank Vance’s intelligence network never truly went to sleep. While Frank’s main nodes were quiet, a handful of high-frequency satellite telemetry monitors remained active across the Northeast corridor. Within twenty minutes of the envelope being dropped in New Haven, Frank’s automated defense grid had intercepted Rossi’s encrypted cellular ping back to Albany.
