PART 2: THE LIQUIDITY MATRIX
The SUV handled the Chicago highway like a tank.
The sleet was turning into a full blizzard against the glass.
I stared at Landon Kee, my fingers aching from how tightly I was holding the micro-SD card.
"You bought my debt?" I asked, my voice barely a thread.
"Collateral, Mave," Landon said, not looking up from his tablet.
"I don't leave loose ends."
"The Varga syndicate has been using your diner as a drop point for three years."
"Hal was their cleaning lady."
"He washed their cash through the registers."
June groaned from the medical bench across from us, the silver-haired doctor adjusting her IV.
"He's... he's lying, Mave," June choked out.
"Landon didn't buy your debt to protect you."
"He bought it because he’s the one who authorized the loan structure five years ago."
I looked between the billionaire and his dying sister.
The blood on my hands was starting to dry, tightening the skin like a glove.
"What does she mean, Landon?"
Landon finally looked up, his gray eyes entirely dead.
"The hospital where your mother died was owned by Kee Medical Group," he said plainly.
"We don't manage individual debts."
"We bundle them."
"Your mother's treatment costs were inflated by forty percent because the Varga syndicate was using our pharmaceutical supply lines to move illicit compounds."
"The debt isn't real, Mave."
"It’s a ledger entry designed to keep people like you working eighty hours a week so you don't look up."
The room inside my head started to spin.
The late shifts. The aching heels. The insults from the manager.
All of it had been calibrated.
"You knew," I whispered.
"I knew the system worked," Landon replied.
"Now, give me the card."
"The feds are already waiting at my estate in Lake Forest."
"If I don't hand them the Varga files by sunrise, they lock my assets."
"And if my assets lock, the hospital shuts down."
"Every patient currently on life support under the Kee foundation dies by morning."
He wasn't just threatening my debt.
He was threatening the entire grid.
"He’s going to destroy the files, Mave," June whispered, her eyes fluttering shut.
"He’s not giving them to the feds."
"He’s going to use them to become the new Varga."
Suddenly, the SUV swerved violently to the left.
The sound of metal grinding against metal tore through the floorboards.
A massive semi-truck had plowed into our side, pinning the armored vehicle against the concrete highway barrier.
The lights inside the cabin died.
May you like
Darkness ập vào mặt.
Then came the sound of heavy boots stepping onto the roof of the vehicle.
