Chapter 211: The Time Bomb
The one-way glass of the interrogation room reflected Camilla’s tear-streaked face. The arrogant socialite was gone; her designer dress was wrinkled and stained from being dragged away by the police.
The door opened. Ryan, his shoulder heavily bandaged and his shirt still stained with blood, walked in. Evelyn followed, her gaze sharp as a razor.
Camilla recoiled as if she’d seen ghosts. Her handcuffs rattled against the metal table. "You... you're alive..." Her eyes locked onto the silver ring on Evelyn’s finger.
She knew. Richard had told her everything—they needed that ring. She just never realized it had been right in front of her the whole time.
"Surprised?" Evelyn pulled out a chair and sat down, tapping the ring against the table. "The thing you've been desperate for was always right here. Too bad your eyes were too full of greed to see it."
"You stole it! It should have been mine!" Camilla shrieked. "I was going to be the mistress of this family! Everything belongs to me!"
"Shut up!" Ryan kicked the table leg, silencing her. He leaned in close. "You're still dreaming? Richard is a dead man. And as for you... if you don't want to spend the rest of your life in a federal supermax, start talking."
"I don't know... I don't know anything!" Camilla shook her head frantically.
Evelyn didn't say a word. She placed a plastic evidence bag on the table. Inside was a mangled, shredded teddy bear. It was Elias’s favorite toy, the one that had "disappeared" at the estate and was found torn to pieces in the trash.
"You destroyed his toy to scare me away. You leaked the security codes to have me killed." Evelyn’s voice was eerily calm. "What did the Twin Snakes promise you, Camilla? Money? My head on a platter?"
The sight of the shredded bear finally broke her.
"I didn't want him to die! I just wanted you gone!" Camilla sobbed into her hands. "A man called 'Fang' contacted me. He said if I helped, he’d make Ryan come back to me. He said if you were gone, Ryan would be mine! I gave them the security codes... I cut the backup power..."
She spilled everything—the money laundering, the shell companies, the assets moved for the organization.
The door opened again. Victor Lawrence was wheeled in by his guards. Though weak, his face was a mask of thunderous rage.
"The Lawrence family does not keep traitors as allies," Victor said, his cane thumping the floor. "Legal department: terminate all contracts with the Covingtons. Hand her over to the Feds. Charge her with treason and attempted murder."
"No! Uncle Victor! I was tricked!" Camilla screamed as she was dragged away.
Suddenly, a commotion broke out in the hallway. "I'd like to see who dares touch my niece!"
David Covington, Richard’s brother and the interim head of the family, burst in with a team of lawyers. "Victor, Richard might be missing, but the Covingtons are still standing. We hold thirty percent of Nova Group's energy contracts. Touch her, and I'll shut down your factories by morning."
It was a blatant threat. Victor’s face darkened, but Evelyn stood up before he could speak. She took the tablet from Ryan and projected its contents onto the wall.
"Mr. Covington, you should look at this first."
The wall filled with spreadsheets and money trails.
"These are the financial records of every Covington subsidiary," Evelyn pointed to the red data. "In the last decade, you've laundered over two billion dollars of blood money for that organization. The source is terrorism. I've already synced this data to the SEC and the IRS. Your stock is currently in freefall. As for the energy contracts..." She smiled coldly. "What right does a bankrupt family facing terror charges have to negotiate?"
David’s legs gave out. He slumped to the floor. It was over.
But Ryan didn't feel relief. He and Evelyn went to the tech room, where Chief Connor was staring at data extracted from Camilla’s phone.
"She was a pawn, but her phone has an encrypted portal," Connor said, pointing to a black snake icon. "It’s a Dark Web link. It needs a specific key."
"Use this." Ryan took Evelyn’s ring and held it to the scanner.
As the code was entered, the black snake turned red. A file titled "Contingency Plan" opened.
Evelyn clicked it. The file was short—a satellite map of the Port of New York and a red countdown clock.
[Target: Energy Route Handover Ceremony] [Payload: Dirty Bomb (Radioactive)] [Time Remaining: 47:58:12]
"They're insane!" Connor went pale. "The ceremony will have three governors and thousands of civilians! If a dirty bomb goes off, Lower Manhattan will be a wasteland!"
"This is the 'nightmare' the leader spoke of," Ryan muttered, his fist clenching.
"Where is it exactly?" Evelyn asked. "The port is massive. There are thousands of containers."
Connor shook his head. "No coordinates. The prisoners we have either kill themselves or know nothing. They're brainwashed."
Forty-eight hours. They had forty-eight hours to find a city-killer in a forest of steel.
"There has to be a lead," Ryan said, grabbing his coat. "Richard is a coward; he wouldn't stay close enough to get caught in the blast. Trace his escape route. It might lead us to the bomb."
"I'll call Professor Hayes," Evelyn added. "She has contacts in the Port Authority. We need a list of every cargo ship that’s entered in the last few days. We’re going to find that bomb if we have to turn the whole port upside down."