Chapter 4 - The Phantom Estate
Within forty-eight hours, Sarah had executed Arthur's orders flawlessly. Using a dummy corporation set up through Arthur’s offshore financial manager, she leased a sprawling, gated estate in the heavily wooded hills of upstate New York. It was completely isolated, surrounded by high walls and security cameras.
Transferring Arthur out of the hospital had required heavy bribes and falsified transfer documents, arranged seamlessly by Dr. Evans, who had wisely chosen Arthur's wealth over medical protocol. John Doe was officially listed as transferred to a long-term palliative care facility under a fake name.
Arthur sat in a high-tech motorized wheelchair in the center of the estate’s massive, empty living room. His legs were covered by a thick cashmere blanket. He looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the autumn leaves, his mind already spinning a web of vengeance.
Sarah walked in, carrying a tray with hot coffee and a stack of encrypted hard drives she had retrieved from a secure locker at a train station.
"Toby is setting up his room down the hall," Sarah said, placing the tray on a glass table. "He still thinks you're just 'Mr. Nobody' who needs a place to stay while he gets better."
"Keep it that way," Arthur said, taking a sip of the black coffee. "The less the boy knows, the safer he is."
He plugged the first hard drive into his new, heavily encrypted laptop. His fingers flew across the keyboard, bypassing the firewalls of his own company. He had built Sterling Global’s security architecture himself; he knew exactly where the backdoors were.
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"What are you looking for?" Sarah asked, watching the lines of code reflect in his dark eyes.
"Motive," Arthur said coldly. "You don't cut the brakes on a billionaire's car unless there is a massive payout waiting at the bottom of the cliff. I'm going to find out exactly who signed my death warrant."
