Chapter 1869

[ 570 words ]

The operatives blending into the crowd were never going to be stupid enough to admit they were at the scene to confirm a kill.

At most, they’d admit to rubbernecking.

Solenians loved a good spectacle.

You could see it at any accident scene across the country.

People would literally stand on the sidewalk eating noodles just to watch cops administer a breathalyzer.

So claiming they were just “watching the drama” was a bulletproof alibi.

This case seemed littered with clues, yet the investigation hit massive roadblocks at every turn.

Despite this, the task force and FIB headquarters refused to back down.

The case was far from closed.

Investigating the individuals tied to the ghost vehicles was incredibly difficult.

The deeper and cleaner their covers were, the more it proved the mastermind had embedded himself flawlessly into the nation’s infrastructure.

The sheer manpower he commanded was staggering.

Thanks to the encrypted drive recovered by the injured operatives previously, FIB headquarters had already locked onto a primary suspect.

This target was essentially an untouchable titan.

If a figure of his stature had been compromised by foreign intelligence, every single branch and root connected to him was potentially infected.

The scrutiny this case received came directly from the absolute highest tier of government.

Eventually, the trail led to Julian Prowler, a distant relative of the titan.

Julian Prowler had founded his own ride-hailing app, SwiftRide.

The vehicles involved in the hit were all sourced through this platform.

This wasn’t the first time SwiftRide had been weaponized for assassinations.

They had used engineered traffic accidents to eliminate rivals on multiple occasions.

Initially, it might have just been warnings or intimidation tactics against those threatening their margins.

Now, they were casually slaughtering targets.

Isolating Julian Prowler through this exhaustive dragnet was clearly a calculated

sacrifice by the mastermind to protect himself.

Toppling the titan’s empire was still a near-impossible task.

FIB headquarters hadn’t brought Julian Prowler in for questioning yet to avoid spooking the real target.

While the police task force remained

ignorant of the titan’s identity,

Captain Vance’s razor-sharp

instincts had already uncovered the connection.

Vance feared the titan would deploy his massive influence to shield Prowler when the hammer fell.

After all, if a family member was exposed running a murder ring, it reflected catastrophic negligence on the titan’s part.

Or worse, it would destroy his flawless public image.

Some men chose to sever ties and burn their relatives to save themselves, while others chose to cover it up.

The titan’s public reputation was spotless, which made FIB headquarters’ operation infinitely more dangerous.

Captain Vance suggested a holding pattern, which perfectly aligned with FIB headquarters’ strategy.

After consulting with his superiors, the directive came down to assemble a task force of elite detectives from across the country.

On paper, they were investigating SwiftRide for a string of fatal accidents. In reality, they were tightening a noose around the titan.

Since its inception, SwiftRide’s

ec Commission rates

had

generated obscene profits, breeding, deep resentment among its drivers

However, the CEO was a master manipulator, capping the fees right at the absolute threshold of what the drivers could endure.

A driver grinding all month would make precisely enough to avoid starvation.

This kept fresh blood pouring into the trap, while veterans agonized daily over whether to quit or keep driving in quiet desperation.

Right when the drivers were most vulnerable, SwiftRide launched a predatory loan service.

These loans seemed to solve their immediate financial crises, but actually dragged them into an inescapable abyss.

According to Vance’s investigation, nearly every driver involved in these fatal ‘accidents’ was severely delinquent on their SwiftRide loans, or had a history of borrowing from the platform.

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