Chapter 12 - The Black Ledger
""A spectacular escape, Julian,"" Hector spoke through the plane's audio system, his voice smooth and laced with venomous amusement. ""Your father was always a stubborn old bastard. He died fighting like an animal in that filthy hangar.""
Julian clenched his fists until his fingernails bit into his palms. ""I will hunt you down, Hector. Whatever you've taken, wherever you run, I will end you.""
Hector laughed, a rich, patronizing rumble. ""You have nothing left to hunt me with. Your mother is dead. Your father is dead. The Hawthorne estate has been seized by the state following allegations of terror financing. As we speak, international warrants are being issued for your arrest.""
""You framed me,"" Julian said, his jaw tightening.
""I simply filled in the blanks Beatrice left behind,"" Hector replied casually. ""To the global financial markets, you are a disgraced heir who murdered his mother and fled with the cartel’s offshore billions. No bank will touch you. No government will shelter you.""
""Why call me?"" Julian demanded. ""If you've won, why waste your breath?""
Hector leaned closer to the lens, his smirk vanishing into cold malevolence. ""Because your father had one last trick. Before he died, he transferred the master cryptographic key of the Black Ledger—the records that tie me to twenty politicians and five global cartels—into an offline hardware wallet. It was coded to your biometric signature, Julian.""
Julian looked down at his watch—the vintage mechanical timepiece Arthur had gifted him for his eighteenth birthday, which he had never taken off.
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""Bring me that key,"" Hector commanded. ""Meet me at the Port of Cartagena in forty-eight hours. Or the next missile that hits your little plane won't come with a warning.""
The screen snapped to black.
