18. The First Move #2
The door opens behind us and Adrian walks back in, coffee in hand. He takes one look at the board before sitting down.
“For a while,” he says.
Everyone looks at him.
He folds his arms.
“The Council isn’t stupid. Freeze one account, investigate one company, raid one Meridian property, they may accept coincidence. Start doing it across multiple jurisdictions and they’ll know someone has connected the pieces.”
Steve glances at Victor. “Then we choose what matters most.”
Victor studies the board again.
“The Phoenix property first. If there are people inside, they’re the priority.”
Heads nod around the room.
“After that?”
“The financial intermediary. The logistics company. The compromised officials we can expose without touching Alexei.”
Harmony nods. “I can prepare evidence packages.”
“Do it.”
Faith turns back to her screen. G and Felicity start separating the intelligence into files that can be released safely. Around the room, everyone gets moving.
I stay where I am for another few seconds, looking at the network we’ve spent months trying to understand.
Yesterday, Legacy was still something we chased.
Today, we know where to start cutting.
Victor looks around the room.
“Let’s make them bleed.”
Blackstone Ventures HQ, San Francisco. 1230 hours.
The first move happens just before lunch.
Harmony sends the evidence package on the financial intermediary to a regulator she trusts, stripped of anything that could point back to Alexei.
Faith watches the transaction records while Shane checks every supporting document remotely from MacLeod’s Summit.
“Sent,” Harmony says.
One target down. Exposed, at least.
Renzo has done the same with the European logistics network, splitting the evidence by jurisdiction and making sure each package stands on records we can independently prove. Dimitry has isolated the Russian connections, but those stay with us for now.
“We need more before we touch those,” Victor says.
Dimitry nods. “Agreed.”
At the next workstation, Charity is on a secure video link with Verity. They’ve spent the last hour going through the Washington names one by one.
Charity suddenly sits forward.
“Wait.”
Verity stops scrolling.
“That one.”
She enlarges the file. I move closer.
Charity studies the name before looking directly into the camera.
“He met with Cunningham twice while I was working for Senator Ellison. Both meetings were off-calendar.”
“Can you prove it?” Harmony asks.
“I can prove he entered the building. Davis asked me to find out why.”
Verity is already searching the files Charity brought out of Washington.
A document appears on the screen. Then another.
Charity points. “There. That’s it.”
Harmony joins them.
Another connection we can establish without Alexei.
Across the room, G’s voice cuts through the conversations.
“Phoenix.”
Everyone turns. Satellite imagery fills the main screen.
Angus and Jax haven’t even left San Francisco yet, but G has found another way to get eyes on the property.
Recent commercial imagery. Vehicles. Delivery schedules. Patterns.
Felicity pulls up the medical supply orders Faith identified earlier and matches the delivery address.
Mercy comes to stand beside me.
“That’s not an empty facility.”
“No.”
Steve studies the screen. “How many people?”
“Can’t tell,” G says. “But somebody’s feeding them.”
“And medicating them,” Matthias says from behind us.
He’s been quiet most of the morning, working through the pharmaceutical purchases.
Now he sends his findings to the main screen. Sedatives. Antipsychotics. Memory-suppression compounds.
The same families of drugs Meridian has used before.
The mood in the room shifts.
Victor looks at Steve.
“We don’t wait.”
Steve nods. “Bear and Jax get eyes on it today. If they confirm victims inside, we build an extraction.”
Victor turns to G. “Anything else active?”
G looks across at Felicity. She gives him a small nod.
He brings up a second map. Then a third. Properties. Accounts. Companies. Routes. All connected by evidence we can now prove without exposing Alexei.
I stare at the screens.
This morning we had information. Now we have targets. And somewhere inside Legacy, people are about to start realizing the organization they’ve hidden behind for years isn’t invisible anymore.
Steve picks up his coffee, discovers it’s empty and looks mildly betrayed.
I almost smile.
Harmony’s phone rings.
She checks the number before answering.
“Harmony Valdez.”
We all keep working. Then her expression sharpens.
“How quickly?”
Victor turns toward her.
Harmony listens for another few seconds.
“Understood. Keep me updated.”
She ends the call.
“That was the regulator.”
Faith looks up. “Already?”
“They’ve reviewed enough of the evidence to act. They’re seeking an emergency freeze on two accounts.”
Silence spreads across the room.
Then the whoops and cheers start. I look around at smiling faces and fist pumps.
Two accounts. Millions of dollars in Legacy money.
Victor looks at the network covering the main screen.
“They’ll notice that.”
Adrian takes a slow sip of his coffee.
“Yes,” he says. “They will. Well done.”
Victor’s gaze moves across all of us.
“Then we’d better be ready when they notice us.”