Chapter 2 - Decrypting the Monster
Back in my garage,
the cedar chest sat unfinished,
a relic of a peaceful life I was now forced to abandon.
I set the laptop on my workbench and opened a secure satellite link I hadn't used in years.
The screen glowed,
illuminating the wrinkles of my face,
each one earned in a different conflict zone.
Gavin’s password was a pathetic attempt at security,
his own birthday followed by the word 'Winner.'
Arrogance is always the first weakness I exploit.
The desktop opened to a chaotic mess of spreadsheets and legal documents.
But I wasn't looking at the surface,
I was looking for the ghost files,
the encrypted sectors he thought were invisible.
After forty minutes of bypassing firewalls that were children’s toys to me,
I found it.
The folder was titled 'Project Horizon.'
Inside were hundreds of scanned documents,
bank transfers,
and offshore account details.
Gavin wasn't just a successful consultant,
he was a professional launderer for a local construction cartel.
He had been using Zoe’s college fund to cover a shortfall in one of his illegal accounts.
He had traded my granddaughter’s future to save his own skin from the criminals he served.
My blood ran cold as I scrolled through photos of other women,
others who looked just like Hannah,
all of them documented in various stages of distress.
He was a predator who specialized in breaking strong women and draining their assets.
I felt the old fire of the battlefield ignite in my chest.
I picked up the phone and dialed a number that didn't exist on any public directory.
“This is Ghost-Six,”
I said,
using my old call sign.
“I need a full financial scrub on a Gavin Pearson,
Princeton,
New Jersey.”
There was a pause on the other end,
then a voice I hadn't heard in five years spoke.
“Colonel?
We thought you were picking roses in the suburbs.”
“The roses have thorns,”
I replied,
staring at a picture of Gavin smiling at a gala.
“I want his offshore accounts frozen,
his credit lines slashed,
and his passport flagged by the morning.”
“Consider it done,
Ma'am.”
I hung up and looked at the USB drive with the red dot.
When I plugged it in,
the files that appeared made my stomach churn.
It wasn't just money.
It was evidence of a planned "accident" for Hannah.
He had an insurance policy on her that would have paid out millions.
He wasn't just hitting her,
he was preparing to erase her.
I stood up,
my hands balled into fists,
the rain finally stopping outside.
The sun would be up soon,
May you like
and with it,
the end of Gavin Pearson’s life as he knew it.
