CHAPTER 6 — The Price of Telling the Truth
CHAPTER 6 — The Price of Telling the Truth
By midnight, the Raines Room had transformed into a crime scene.
Champagne glasses had been replaced by evidence bags.
Luxury briefcases sat beside forensic scanners.
Every page of the ruined contract was photographed, dried, and preserved.
Outside, rain still fell across Manhattan.
Inside, lives were changing forever.
Agent Brooks approached Shaina.
"Ms. Bennett."
Shaina stood.
"Yes?"
"You'll need to give a formal statement."
"Of course."
Brooks studied her carefully.
"Do you understand what you've done tonight?"
Shaina gave a small, uncertain laugh.
"Lost my job?"
Brooks almost smiled.
"You may have exposed an international financial conspiracy."
The words hardly seemed real.
Shaina had come to work worrying about rent.
Now federal agents were asking her to testify in what was becoming one of the largest corporate fraud investigations in years.
Karim joined them.
"I have a request."
Brooks nodded.
"I'm listening."
"I want Ms. Bennett placed under temporary protective security."
Shaina blinked.
"What?"
Karim looked at her seriously.
"People willing to steal billions rarely stop at forgery."
Brooks agreed immediately.
"My office was about to recommend the same thing."
Shaina suddenly remembered something.
Her apartment.
Her father's books.
The storage locker she still hadn't emptied.
If someone had silenced one translator...
Could they come after another witness?
A knot formed in her stomach.
Across the room, Preston finally broke.
"I'll cooperate."
Every conversation stopped.
Arthur slowly turned toward him.
Preston couldn't meet his eyes.
"I never wanted this to go this far."
Arthur's voice was icy.
"You coward."
"I changed the clauses..."
Preston whispered.
"...because you ordered me to."
Arthur exploded.
"Liar!"
Preston shook his head violently.
"You said Karim would never read Arabic."
"You promised the sovereign protections would make recovery impossible."
"You told me we'd all retire after the deal closed."
Federal agents wrote every word.
Arthur realized too late that his own attorney had become the prosecution's first cooperating witness.
As Arthur was escorted toward the door, he suddenly stopped.
He turned around.
Not toward the agents.
Not toward Karim.
Toward Shaina.
Their eyes met across the room.
"You think this ends tonight?" Arthur asked quietly.
"There are people far more powerful than me."
Shaina held his gaze.
"Maybe."
She spoke more calmly than she felt.
"But tonight..."
She glanced at the ruined contract lying inside an evidence bag.
"...they lost."
Arthur was led away without another word.
The elevator doors closed behind him.
For a long moment, no one spoke.
Then Karim looked out at the rain-soaked skyline.
"This was never about three billion dollars."
Leila nodded.
"No."
"It was about trust."
Karim turned toward Shaina.
"My family has spent generations choosing partners."
He extended his hand.
"Tonight, the only person in this room who truly honored a partnership... was the waitress."
Shaina looked at his outstretched hand.
She reached forward and shook his hand.
Neither of them noticed the man standing across the street in the rain, watching through a camera lens.
He lowered the camera, made a single phone call, and spoke only six words before hanging up.
May you like
"The witness is still alive."
Then he disappeared into the darkness.
