MTLNOVEL Chapter 264: Growing Obsession
'How dare he?'
'How fucking dare that child of a man?!'
'What is he? Just 22 years old? 21? I'm years older than him? What feeds his ego that he thinks he could talk to me that way?!'
Lilian 's mind burned, turned and churned with thoughts like this, all about Darren Steele, throughout the visits to the other companies and places she had to inspect.
The thoughts and anger carried on to her flight back to Washington in the airplane. And even when she returned to the International Department Of Financial Integrity.
It was late at night by the time everything was over for the day, but Lilian wasn't resting, her anger couldn't let her.
Rain lashed against the reinforced windows of her office, casting streaked shadows across walls papered with flowcharts, property maps, and Darren Steele's corporate structure.
The room was monastic: no personal photos, only the hum of powerful computers and the sharp scent of ozone from overloaded circuits.
Lilian stood before a large monitor, back ramrod straight, her reflection in the dark glass a ghostly echo of the woman who'd walked out of Steele Complex hours ago. The fury wasn't gone; it had been compressed, refined into a diamond-hard point of focus.
'He knew about my father. He used it. Like a scalpel to the soul. That bastard. I don't know if it was a tactic, or he's just a plain devil. But he went deep. Like he wants warfare. He wants this to be personal, cruel, and utterly revealing.'
She narrowed her eyes, arms folded. 'You showed me your ruthlessness, Steele. Now I show you mine. I will dismantle you, brick by legal brick, and bury your empire in the truth you hide.'
She wanted to get right to work when a sharp knock interrupted her focus. "Agent Greaves? The team's assembled in the Briefing Room Gamma."
Lilian sighed but didn't turn around. "Two minutes, Cho." She said with no interest in the meeting at all. Agent Cho hesitated, then retreated.
Once he left, Lilian returned to work. Her finger traced a line on the screen: a complex web connecting John Brittle, defunct LLCs, and a faded address that was now the Navarro warehouse.
'Coincidental geography, huh? We'll see about that.'
Meanwhile, inside the briefing room gamma, Analysts Cho, Petrov, and Rivera sat facing a large screen, coffees cooling, faces expectant but wary.
Soon after, Lilian entered. She walked to the front, deciding not to sit as her storm-grey eyes swept over them. The usual professional distance was replaced by an almost palpable intensity.
"As you know, Caldridge gave me the power to handle this as I choose. Therefore, Project TALON is now activated," she stated.
The analysts almost gasped, whispering to each other. Project TALON wasn't something they whipped out for any normal case, it had to be someone of high threat. Hence they began to wonder who this person could be.
Lilian said the name. "Target: Darren Steele and Steele Investments."
'Huh?'
'What?'
'I thought we'd be going after Sagomoto himself. Or at least Osama Bin Laden.'
Lilian continued. " Our Primary Objective is to uncover and document systemic financial obfuscation, specifically related to the R. Talmor entity, the Navarro facility, and early funding anomalies. Secondary Objective: Identify and neutralize Steele's illicit intelligence-gathering capabilities."
'How he knew about my father. How he violated me.'
She tapped the screen. A satellite image of the Navarro warehouse complex appeared. "Step One: Brittle Excavation. John Brittle, former owner of the Navarro site. Petrov, I want everything. Everything. Property deeds, tax liens, business licenses from 2000 to present. Cross-reference with all shell companies registered to him or his known associates during the period R. Talmor Solutions was supposedly 'inactive' – 2010 to 2011. Look for bank accounts, utility payments, anything proving active financial life during that window. Scour bankruptcy filings, creditor lists, lawsuits. Find me a thread connecting Brittle to active financial crime networks during Talmor's supposed dormancy."
Petrov scribbled furiously. "Yes, Agent. Deep historical dive. On it." — 'But activating TALON for this? What is she thinking? Boss is going to kill her."
"Step Two: Genesis Audit." The hologram shifted to a grainy, decade-old photo of a younger Darren Steele standing before a much smaller server rack. "Rivera. Petition Judge Ramirez for sealed access to their earliest banking records, investor agreements, and capital inflow logs. Focus on obscured investors, unusual payment sources, transfers to entities matching Brittle's known shells, or payments to any entity resembling 'R. Talmor'. Look for discrepancies between reported funding sources and actual deposits." Lilian's gaze hardened.
'I'm digging into your origin story, Steele. Let's see how clean it really was.'
She finished with Rivera by saying, "Assume their record-keeping was less sophisticated then. Find the crack."
Even though Rivera was unsure about this, he still agreed, eyes wide. "Understood."
"Step Three: Physical Nexus." The screen now showed shipping container schematics and power grid maps overlaid on Navarro. "Cho. Navarro Logistics Siege. Demand all shipping manifests, customs clearance forms, maintenance logs, and local utility power consumption records for Navarro for the last 24 months. Cross-reference every item shipped in or out against Steele Investments' official hardware purchase orders and known ASIC specifications. Look for mismatched serial numbers, unreported specialized equipment, or power draws inconsistent with simple storage – anything requiring industrial cooling or networking beyond basic warehousing."
"One discrepancy, Cho. That's all I need. Find it."
Cho swallowed. "Comprehensive physical paper trail analysis. Got it."
Still, the analysts exchanged stunned glances. This was beyond standard financial review. This was a declaration of total war, waged with the full arsenal of the state.
Noticing this, Lilian asked; "Questions?" Though it sounded more like who would dare challenge her?
Petrov cleared his throat. "Agent Greaves... the scope. The resources... this is unprecedented for a single flagged transfer report."
Lilian's gaze locked onto him, the storm-grey eyes glacial. "Did you forget the part where I said I'm allowed to run this my way?"
Petrov lowered his head.
"Darren Steele escalated. We respond. Proportionally. Professionally. Precisely." Her voice didn't rise, but the intensity was crushing. "He believes his wealth and his firewalls place him above scrutiny."
A muscle feathered in her jaw. "He is mistaken. I will peel back every layer of obfuscation. I will follow every dollar, every wire, every watt of power. I will excavate his past and dissect his present. And I will find the illegality festering at the core of Steele Investments. It's there. I smelled it." She straightened, radiating absolute conviction. "Dismissed. Report updates hourly."
The analysts scrambled out, the weight of her focus pressing them forward.
"Jesus, what's up with her today?"
"I don't know. She's been that way ever since she came back."
"That Steele guy must have gotten to her."
"Best not to get in her way when she's like this."
Alone in the briefing room, Lilian walked to the window. The city of Washington AD glittered below, rain-streaked and impersonal.
'You thought you could wound me and walk away, Darren?' The thought was crystalline, sharp. 'You thought your digital fortress and your smug lawyers were enough? You mistook my silence for surrender. You mistook my professionalism for weakness.'
Her reflection in the glass showed no rage, only terrifying purpose. The hatred rising in her was becoming the cold fusion core driving a machine built for demolition.
'I am coming for you.'