Chapter 57 - The Zurich Impasse
By 4:00 AM, the command center at the Columbus Federal Courthouse was fully operational.
Von Berg had patched an encrypted video satellite link directly into the Federal Palace in Bern. On the wall monitors, three senior Swiss prosecutors and the Deputy Federal Counselor stared at the scanned evidence Miller had uploaded from the quarry.
"The evidence is unequivocal," Von Berg addressed his superiors in Bern. "The Panama entity *Solstice Maritime* is a synthetic dummy vehicle constructed by Gregory Vance using forged biometrics of an American citizen. The eighty million dollars currently held in escrow at Credit Agricole was redirected under false pretenses. The extradition warrant against Arthur Bennett is hereby revoked."
A collective sigh of relief washed over the room. Dad sat beside Mom, their hands tightly intertwined, forty years of terror finally beginning to evaporate from their shoulders.
"However," the Swiss Deputy Federal Counselor spoke over the secure audio, his tone grave, "Vance is aware the operation at the quarry failed. His private jet at Rickenbacker Air Guard Base has filed an emergency flight plan departing for an undisclosed private airstrip in the Cayman Islands in fifty minutes. If that aircraft leaves American airspace, the stolen assets will be dispersed across three thousand decentralized cryptocurrency cold wallets. The funds will vanish forever."
"He won't make it to the runway," Miller declared, picking up his radio. "I have two squads of federal marshals surrounding Rickenbacker as we speak."
"Wait," Dad interrupted, stepping toward the video screen.
Everyone in the room turned to look at the retired mechanic.
"He won't be on that plane," Dad said calmly.
Miller frowned. "Arthur, his flight manifest was filed under his executive alias twenty minutes ago. His town car was spotted entering the airfield perimeter."
"That's a decoy," Dad said, tapping the leather cipher book still resting on the table. "Look at section seven of my brother’s notes from 1985. Vance never runs when an account is frozen. He has a failsafe built into the physical infrastructure of the Columbus depository. The sovereign gold certificates were never digital—they were paper bearer bonds issued by the Ohio Treasury. Vance can't leave without the physical bonds, and those bonds aren't at the airport."
"Where are they?" Von Berg asked, leaning forward with intense urgency.
May you like
Dad looked at me, a profound sadness in his eyes. "They’re in the basement of the house on High Street. Inside the cold storage room beneath the old furnace."
***
