Chapter 8 - The Encrypted Call
Midnight descended upon the federal penitentiary,
casting long,
shadowy bars across Daniel's cell floor.
He sat on the metal bunk in total darkness,
holding a tiny,
smuggled burner phone that Marcus had managed to deliver during afternoon chow.
The screen glowed faintly in the dark room,
illuminating Daniel's sharp,
unforgiving features.
His thumb hovered over the keypad,
dialing a sequence of encrypted numbers that connected directly to his last remaining loyal hacker in Prague.
The line rang twice before a raspy voice answered on the other end.
"Speak,"
the hacker whispered in heavily accented English.
"It is Daniel,"
he replied in a low,
commanding tone.
"I need you to run a deep-web trace on a federal witness protection relocation order issued three weeks ago."
The hacker let out a nervous whistle through the receiver.
"Boss,
that is suicide,
the feds monitor all encrypted nodes associated with your old network."
"Do it anyway,"
Daniel commanded,
his voice dropping an octave with pure authority.
"Find out where Claire Carter and my daughter were relocated."
"Give me forty-eight hours,"
the hacker agreed hesitantly before the line went dead.
Daniel slid the burner phone beneath his thin mattress,
just as heavy footsteps echoed down the concrete cell block.
A prison guard flashed his heavy-duty flashlight through the steel bars,
inspecting the cell to ensure everything was quiet.
Daniel lay back on his cot,
closing his eyes while his mind raced with cold calculation.
Forty-eight hours.
That was all he needed to orchestrate his next move.
Across the country,
in the quiet seaside cottage in Maine,
Claire woke up with a sudden,
unsettling chill running down her spine.
She looked down at her sleeping daughter in the bassinet beside her bed,
feeling a sudden surge of dread.
She knew Daniel was relentless,
knew that prison walls would never be enough to hold a man like him for long.
She quietly got out of bed,
walked over to the window,
and stared out into the dark,
stormy night.
"He is coming,"
May you like
she whispered to the empty room,
her heart pounding with fear and fierce maternal instinct.
