Chapter 3 - The Audit Trail
In the operations center at Fort Mason, Leah stared at the encrypted file on terminal three. The green text scrolled down the dark screen like falling code in a retro simulation, but the data was terrifyingly real.
MERCER LOGISTICS HOLDINGS LLC PRIMARY BENEFICIARY: RICHARD MERCER (65%) FORFEITED INTEREST: ESTATE OF MARGARET MERCER (35%) DATE OF EXECUTION: NOVEMBER 14, 2014 STATUS: RED FLAG - POTENTIAL ASSET DIVERSION & FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCE
Leah didn't blink. She reached out and touched the metal housing of the monitor, feeling the faint, steady vibration of the internal cooling fan.
Twelve years ago, when she was nineteen and fresh out of her freshman year at Georgetown, her mother had died in what the local police report had briskly categorized as an "accidental domestic drowning" at the Great Falls estate. At the time, Leah had been too shattered, too overwhelmed by her father’s cold efficiency and Celeste’s sudden, suffocating presence in the house, to question the paperwork put in front of her.
She had signed away her administrative rights to her mother’s estate because her father had looked her in the eyes and said, “Trust me, Leah. I’m protecting the family business so you and Bryce have a future.”
A future that apparently consisted of being uninvited from Christmas dinner so she wouldn't "overshadow" a stepbrother who couldn't even run a regional depot without cooking the expense reports.
"Captain Mercer," Vance’s voice broke through her concentration as he walked back over, holding a fresh cup of black coffee. "You got a secure ping coming in from a civilian IP. Looks like legal counsel out of Boston. Name’s Harrison."
Leah straightened up. "Put it through to the secure comms booth in the corner, Sergeant. I’ll take it."
"On Christmas Eve?" Vance raised an eyebrow. "You sure you don't want me to tell them you're off duty?"
"There’s no off-duty when the weather’s like this, Vance," she said quietly, standing up from her chair.
She walked over to the glass-walled comms booth, pulled the heavy door shut, and tapped the accept button on the encrypted terminal.
The face of Arthur Harrison flickered onto the screen. Harrison was an elderly attorney with silver hair, wire-rimmed glasses, and a study lined with leather-bound books that looked like they belonged in a nineteenth-century courtroom. He looked tired, but his eyes were sharp as broken glass.
"Captain Mercer," Harrison said without preamble. "I’m glad I caught you. I know what day it is, but federal magistrate Judge Vance just signed the writ."
Leah’s heart gave a single, solid thud against her ribs. "The writ for the Mercer Logistics records?"
"Not just the records," Harrison corrected, leaning closer to his webcam. "The forensic audit is complete. Your father didn't just dilute your mother’s thirty-five percent share back in 2014. He transferred the primary intellectual property assets—the government supply chain routing algorithms your mother wrote before the company even had three trucks—into a shell corporation registered in the Caymans under Bryce’s name."
Leah looked down at her uniform sleeve, tracing the golden braid near the cuff with her thumb. "And the timing on the public disclosure?"
"The federal transport board is releasing the preliminary compliance findings tonight at midnight," Harrison said. "It’s a mandatory public transparency filing. Your stepbrother’s promotion party is going to get a very interesting headline with their dessert."
Leah was silent for a long moment. Outside the booth, the wind howled against the reinforced glass of the operations center, shaking the entire building.
May you like
"Make sure my name is completely insulated from the initial filing, Arthur," Leah said evenly. "I want this handled strictly through the federal regulatory channels. No personal vendettas. Just the law."
"Understood, Captain," Harrison replied, a faint, appreciative smile touching the corners of his mouth. "Your mother would have been very proud of your patience. Though I suspect she would have deployed the tanks a lot sooner."
