Chapter 4 - Shadows of the Syndicate
The interrogation took place in an abandoned cold-storage facility down by the docks. Clara Hayes, twenty-two years old and trembling violently, sat tied to a steel chair under a single bare bulb.
Damien didn't bring weapons. He didn't need them. He stood in the shadows just outside the light, his hands folded behind his back, while Frank stood beside him.
"I didn't know!" Clara sobbed, her eyes red and swollen. "I swear to God, Mr. Cross, I didn't know it was poison! They told me it was a mild sickening agent—just enough to make her miss work! Just enough to make you think she was incompetent so you'd fire her!"
Damien stepped into the light. His shadow stretched long across the concrete floor. "Who told you?"
"A man! He called me on a burner phone. He knew about my brother’s medical bills. He said if I put a drop of the liquid into her sugar every few days, he’d pay off the hospital!" Clara wept. "He said Miss Walsh was taking over the company, that she was ruining things for the old board members. He said he just wanted her gone!"
"Did you know she was pregnant?" Damien asked, his voice chillingly calm.
Clara froze, her jaw dropping. "P-pregnant? No! No, I swear! I wouldn't—"
"Give me the phone," Damien held out a gloved hand.
Frank handed him a encrypted burner retrieved from Clara’s apartment. Damien scrolled through the call logs. The numbers were routed through three proxy networks, but the timing of the calls aligned perfectly with internal Syndicate meetings.
Whoever was giving the orders knew Damien’s schedule. They knew when he would be angry, when he would be stressed, and precisely when Erin’s failing health would look like a liability rather than a crime.
"It was a setup," Damien muttered to himself. "The perpetrator didn't just want Erin sick. They wanted me to fire her. They wanted her out of the building, stripped of protection, away from my eyes."
"Why?" Frank asked.
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"Because Erin isn't just my secretary," Damien turned, walking toward the exit. "She’s the only one who holds the master keys to the Syndicate’s secondary ledger. If she was fired, she’d take her personal laptops home. Away from our firewalls. Easy to steal. Easy to kill."
He turned back to Clara. "She stays in a secure holding cell. Feed her. Keep her alive. She’s our lure."
