Part 25
They spent the night researching,
digging through the encrypted files again,
looking for what they missed.
If Thorne was the knight,
who was pulling his strings,
who had the power to command a billionaire?
"Look at his early investments," Julian suggested,
rubbing his tired eyes,
staring at the monitor.
"Twenty years ago,
before he was a household name,
where did his seed money come from?"
Eleanor scrolled back,
through decades of financial records,
tracing the origins of Thorne's empire.
"It came from a holding company,
registered in Delaware,
called Apex Solutions."
"Let me guess,
it dissolved ten years ago,
leaving no trace," Julian sighed.
"Actually, no," she frowned,
clicking on a legal link.
"It was absorbed,
by a private equity firm,
based in Washington D.C."
The name of the firm,
glowing on the screen,
was Vanguard Strategies.
Julian froze,
his hand hovering over the mouse,
his breathing stopping for a second.
"I know that name," he said,
his voice barely a whisper.
"How?" she asked,
looking at him,
noticing his sudden pallor.
"When I was in military intelligence,
we used contractors from Vanguard,
for off-the-books interrogations."
He stood up,
pacing the room,
agitated.
"They are a ghost agency,
funded by black budgets,
answering to no one."
"If Vanguard is the king," Eleanor reasoned,
connecting the dots,
"then this isn't just corporate corruption."
"It is a rogue faction,
within the intelligence community,
operating their own shadow government."
The magnitude of the truth,
was crushing,
heavier than anything they had faced before.
Ashcroft,
Lang,
even Thorne,
they were just civilians,
pawns used to generate money and influence.
The real enemy,
had guns,
satellites,
and the full power of the state behind them.
"We can't fight Vanguard,
Eleanor," Julian warned,
stopping in front of her.
"They make people disappear,
permanently,
without leaving a ripple."
"They sent me the knight,
Julian," she argued,
picking up the onyx piece.
"They are taunting us,
telling us we are insignificant,
that we can never reach them."
"Maybe we should listen," he pleaded,
grabbing her shoulders,
gently.
"We did enough,
we stopped the immediate threat,
we can walk away."
She looked into his eyes,
seeing his fear,
not for himself,
but for her.
She wanted to agree,
she wanted to drop the chess piece,
and walk into the sunset with him.
But she remembered the names,
in her notebook,
the people whose lives were ruined by Atlas.
"I can't," she whispered,
a tear escaping her eye.
"If I stop now,
everything we fought for,
is a lie."
He pulled her into a hug,
resting his chin on her head,
surrendering to her stubborn will.
"Okay," he agreed,
softly.
"Then we fight Vanguard,
May you like
but we do it my way,
like a war."
