Chapter 7 - Uncovering the Trail
For three days, Elara barely slept. She lived on black coffee and adrenaline, pouring over thousands of lines of financial data. Cassian was a constant, looming presence. He brought her meals himself, watching her work with an intense, quiet fascination.
He had expected a terrified civilian. Instead, he found a razor-sharp mind that cut through complex money-laundering webs with terrifying precision.
"Here," Elara said late on the third night, her voice hoarse.
Cassian, who had been reading a dossier on the leather sofa, was at her side in an instant. "What did you find?"
"Look at this timestamp," Elara pointed at the screen. "Every Thursday at 3:00 AM, there’s a micro-transaction disguised as a vendor payout for the lounge's liquor supply. It bypasses your primary ledger. It routes through three dummy corporations before landing in an account in Panama."
Cassian leaned in, his arm brushing against her shoulder. "How much has he moved?"
Elara typed a quick command to tally the hidden ledger. The final number flashed on the screen.
Twenty-two million dollars.
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Cassian’s jaw locked. The silence in the room was deafening. "That's not just embezzlement," he said softly, a dark, murderous rage swirling in his eyes. "That's funding for a private army. He's buying off the rival families in the Bronx."
"He's preparing to overthrow you," Elara confirmed, looking up at him. "Cassian, he's going to kill you."
