Chapter 11 - The Raid On Vance Defense Dynamics Headquarters
At 10:00 AM on Friday, sixty federal agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and the United States Marshals Service raided the forty-story headquarters of Vance Defense Dynamics in Arlington, Virginia.
The glass revolving doors were secured by armed tactical units.
Employees stood frozen at their desks as boxes of accounting records, encrypted servers, and executive hard drives were seized and labeled as federal evidence.
The double doors of the top-floor executive boardroom burst open.
Marcus Vance was sitting at the head of the conference table, surrounded by his terrified defense lawyers.
Victoria Vance was weeping in the corner, clutching her designer handbag.
I walked into the boardroom wearing my service dress uniform, holding my father’s original leather notebook under my arm.
Flanking me were Colonel Harrison Cole and the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
“Marcus Vance,” the U.S. Attorney announced, unrolling a fifty-page federal indictment. “You are under arrest for first-degree murder, treason, federal securities fraud, corporate embezzlement, and grand theft of intellectual property.”
Two federal marshals stepped forward, grabbed Marcus by his arms, pulled him out of his leather chair, and clicked heavy steel handcuffs around his wrists.
Marcus looked at me, his eyes wild with terror, his breath raspy.
“Claire... please! Your father was my friend! We can make a deal! I’ll give you the company! I’ll give you five hundred million dollars!”
I looked down at the man who had murdered my father, terrorized my mother, and left my brother to die in poverty.
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“You don't have anything to give me, Marcus,” I said, my voice as cold as granite. “You’re standing in my father’s building, on my father’s land, surrounded by my father’s technology. You are going to die in a federal prison cell.”
Marcus was dragged out of the boardroom in chains in front of fifty national news cameras waiting in the lobby below.
