Chapter 4 - Unraveling the Web
The moment the tension snapped, I shoved my arms free from the wrap, gasping in deep, ragged breaths of cool air. I threw open the remaining plastic layers, ripping them away from my chest and hurling them onto the concrete.
"Maya, take this," Elena said, tossing a small encrypted flash drive onto my lap. "That contains the complete data mirror of every grant falsification Carter and his father have pushed through the university's automated logistics system over the last three years."
Carter lunged forward in a desperate, blind rage, abandoning all pretense. "Give me that!"
He didn't make it two steps.
With a soft electronic whir, Elena’s wheelchair spun 180 degrees, and a heavy magnetic anchoring system dropped from her chassis, locking onto the steel floor plates. Simultaneously, a remote tripwire she had laid across the aisle earlier caught Brad and Tyler around the ankles, sending both fraternity brothers crashing hard onto the dusty floor in a tangle of limbs and groans.
Carter tripped over his fallen accomplices, sprawling flat on his face just inches from my footrest.
"Get off me, you idiots!" Carter snarled, shoving Tyler away and scrambling to his feet, his designer shirt stained with industrial grease. He glared at Elena and me with pure venom. "You think this changes anything? My father runs the Board of Regents. The police won't touch this. The federal grant is already approved by the committee. Even if you expose the algorithm, the university will bury it to protect its reputation."
"They might try," a calm, authoritative voice echoed from the main entrance of the warehouse.
We all turned. Stepping out from the shadows of the primary freight elevator was Dean Vance himself—accompanied by two campus security officers in full uniform and, surprisingly, the university’s chief compliance auditor, Director Sterling.
Carter froze, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. "Dad... what... what are you doing here?"
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Dean Vance looked at his son, his expression a mask of cold, devastating disappointment. "I received an automated system alert, Carter. Not from the drop tower, but from the compliance firewall that Director Sterling and I installed last month to monitor high-value federal grants."
Director Sterling stepped forward, holding a tablet displaying scrolling lines of real-time server code. "We didn't just monitor the grant, Carter. We watched your team manipulate the stress-test parameters to pass substandard sorting machinery. And when Maya refused to sign off on your fraudulent data, you attempted to stage an industrial homicide."
