Chapter 3 - The Submerged Secret
"I asked you a question!" Richard shrieked, his voice echoing through the silent, tense airplane cabin. "What is this?!"
Nearby passengers leaned over their seats, craning their necks to see what the tiny woman had done.
Sitting perfectly dead center on Richard's leather seat cushion was a clear plastic cup filled to the brim with scalding hot airplane coffee. But it wasn't just a spilled drink.
Submerged entirely at the bottom of the dark, steaming liquid was a sleek, black titanium USB drive.
All the color violently drained from Richard’s face. He physically staggered backward, bumping into the beverage cart. His knees buckled in sheer, unadulterated terror.
That titanium USB drive was his master hardware wallet. It was the only physical device in the world that contained the un-redacted offshore banking ledgers, the illegal wire transfer receipts, and the access codes to the stolen pension funds. It was the digital key to his entire corrupt empire.
Because Richard was so incredibly arrogant, so entirely convinced that the tiny woman beside him was a harmless, invisible peasant, he had carelessly left the drive sitting out on the shared armrest when he went to the restroom. He had left it right in her space.
"You don't need all that space," Margaret said softly, repeating his exact words with chilling precision. "And you certainly don't need that drive."
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Richard lunged forward, frantically plunging his bare hand into the scalding coffee to retrieve the drive. He pulled it out, desperately wiping the dark liquid on his expensive sweater. But the hardware was completely fried. The internal chip was destroyed.
👉 Richard screamed that she had just ruined his life, but Margaret’s next words would reveal a truth far more terrifying.
