A Coolvalstories Action Thriller
Word Count: ~1600 words
8:40 PM – Detroit PD, Chase’s Office
The city was quieter now.
The cameras had left the school. The smoke had cleared. But inside Detective Morgan Chase’s mind, the noise had just begun.
Three men in custody:
-
Reggie Dawson – former soldier
-
Carlos Montoya – career criminal
-
Trey Mensah – tech-savvy misfit
Each of them knew just enough to rob a bank — but too little to understand they were part of something bigger.
8:52 PM – Cyber Forensics Lab
Chase stood beside Jenna, the department’s cyber analyst, who had just cracked a secured email string on Trey’s laptop.
“Whoever hired him used military-grade encryption,” she said, pointing at the screen. “No source IP. No contact name. Just a handle — Director_Zero.”
Chase frowned.
“That’s not a name. That’s a role.”
Jenna nodded. “It gets deeper. Look at this.”
She opened a hidden metadata file.
Embedded: a cleaned routing trace through five countries.
Final ping: Luxembourg.
Underneath it, one flagged note from an old Interpol alert:
“Alias: The Broker. Orchestrator. No confirmed identity. Known for misdirection-based heists.”
9:18 PM – Holding Cell: Reggie
Chase entered slowly.
Reggie sat on the bench, still soaked in dried sweat and rain, arms resting on his knees.
Chase didn’t sit.
“You knew what this was,” he said.
Reggie looked up.
“You didn’t just wake up one day and decide to rob a bank. Someone handed you the layout. Timed the guards. Fed you entry codes.”
Reggie said nothing.
“We found nothing linking you to the diamond heist. But someone used your job as cover for theirs.”
Chase leaned in.
“You’re the smoke.”
Still… silence.
Reggie’s eyes narrowed, not in fear, but in loyalty — to a deal he wasn’t willing to break.
9:42 PM – Squad Room
The whiteboard was now split in two.
On the left:
Lincoln Elementary Robbery
-
Reggie’s crew
-
Escape route
-
Timeline
-
Hostage aftermath
On the right:
Dahlman Vault Diamond Heist
-
Zero footage
-
No witnesses
-
Digital jamming
-
No forced entry
-
Van recovered empty
“Two crimes,” Chase muttered, “but only one trail.”
He drew a red circle around the name:
The Broker
10:20 PM – Detention Wing
In his cell, Trey sat with his arms folded.
Chase appeared at the bars.
“Let me guess,” Trey said. “You think some Bond villain pulled this off while I was playing babysitter with a bunch of third-graders?”
“Something like that.”
Trey smirked, then added softly, “I was told to disable the cameras 4 minutes before entry. Didn’t think much of it. But I remember something now…”
Chase stepped closer.
“A few hours before the job, I got a message from the same account. One line: ‘If caught, you say nothing. Ever.’ Then it vanished.”
Chase’s jaw tightened.
Same instructions Reggie had followed.
Someone was puppeteering the silence.
10:57 PM – Grosse Pointe, Private Residence
Inside a high-rise condo overlooking the city, a well-dressed man poured himself a glass of scotch.
On a laptop nearby, news coverage of the Lincoln school siege rolled on mute.
He opened an encrypted window. Typed:
“Phase One: Complete.”
He clicked Send.
Then moved to a steel case on his table.
Inside:
Re-cut diamonds. Untraceable. Labeled for export.
11:12 PM – Interpol Quiet Alert
In a low-lit office in Lyon, France, an Interpol analyst watched a blinking name on a terminal:
THE BROKER – Possible U.S. Operation Logged (Detroit)
No fingerprints. No faces.
Just noise.
But the pattern was forming.
11:45 PM – Chase’s Office
The room was dim, his coffee cold.
Chase stared at the board.
Three men in custody — the city relieved.
But he knew better.
This wasn’t a closed case.
It was a door cracked open.
He scrawled one last note:
“The real crime left no bodies, no prints, and no suspects.”
“The Broker doesn’t need chaos. He hires it.”
12:01 AM – Reggie’s Cell
Reggie sat alone, staring at the folded drawing Skylar had given him.
Then he turned it over, took a pen from his pocket, and scribbled on the back:
“To whoever finds this…
If silence was the price, I’ve paid it.
He tucked the paper into his shirt.
And lay back quietly.
TO BE CONTINUED…
