Chapter 8 - The Shadow of the Network
The international victory in Genoa was massive, but the ghost inside the Castillo network remained active.
Upon their return to Miami in late winter, Marcus’s cyber-forensic team discovered a series of highly encrypted data packets being transmitted from the mansion’s primary security hub to a secure server location in Zurich, Switzerland.
"Someone is trying to pull the final operational archives of Castillo Holdings, boss," Marcus said as he and Alejandro sat in the monitoring room at 2:00 a.m. "They’re trying to wipe the evidence of the deep-fake algorithms before the federal trial begins next month."
"Trace the physical MAC address of the originating terminal, Marcus," Alejandro said, his eyes narrowing as he watched the digital progress bar on the screen.
"It’s coming from inside the house, Alejandro," a voice said from the doorway.
Elena walked into the room, holding a small, silver thumb drive. Her face was grim, her eyes full of a sudden, painful resolution. "It wasn't Dominic Rossi who wiped the logs the night I disappeared. Dominic didn't have the administrative access tokens for the mansion's private server room. Only three people had those codes: you, me... and your sister, Sofia."
Alejandro went entirely rigid, the air leaving his lungs in a sharp, painful gasp. "Sofia? No... that’s impossible. She was in Paris when you vanished. She flew back the next morning to comfort me."
"She flew back to manage the scene, Alejandro," Elena said softly, placing the thumb drive on the console. "Look at the secondary ledger records from the Zurich account. Sofia didn't want me dead; she wanted my family’s shares to fund her private fashion empire in Europe. She partnered with Vivian because Vivian promised her fifty percent of the Genoa shipping margins once Castillo Holdings was restructured."
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Alejandro stared at the screen as Marcus executed the decryption protocol on the thumb drive. A second later, the display filled with a series of high-definition security recordings from the night of Elena's disappearance.
There, standing in the kitchen hallway while Elena was being led down to the service elevator by Vivian’s guards, was Sofia Castillo. She was drinking a cup of tea, her face completely indifferent as she watched her brother's wife being stolen from her life.
