Chapter 23: The Report
Xavier didn’t open the full file until he was back at his apartment.
Not on the street. Not in a cab. Not anywhere with eyes around him.
He changed, made coffee, sat at his desk and opened the encrypted app.
The report was longer than the first one. Twenty three pages. The security contact had been thorough.
He started from the beginning.
The Cardinal Circle. Founded approximately four years ago. Originally a debt collection operation serving three districts in Kenvale. Current operations span six districts. Estimated monthly cash flow $400,000 across betting, collections and protection arrangements.
Xavier read through the structure section. Femi sat at the third tier. A recruiter and debt enforcer, useful but replaceable. Above him were two second tier operators who handled the actual money movement.
He kept scrolling.
Leadership. First tier. Single individual. Known within the group only as The Chairman.
Xavier paused.
Real identity.....
He read the name.
Set his coffee down.
Read it again.
Professor Daniel Ashworth. Head of Faculty. Business and Entrepreneurship Department. Riverside University.
Xavier sat back in his chair.
A professor, he thought. Not just a professor. The head of faculty at the same university I attend. He looked at the ceiling for a moment. Femi isn’t just a student with connections to a street group. He’s a direct recruit of a man who runs the academic department above his own.
He picked up his coffee and kept reading.
The picture that assembled itself over the next twenty three pages was methodical and genuinely impressive in the way dangerous things sometimes are.
Ashworth had built The Cardinal Circle using the university as cover for fifteen years. Student recruits. Campus infrastructure. Academic connections that gave him access to financial systems nobody thought to question. He wasn’t some street level operator who had gotten lucky. He was an institution. Literally.
And Femi, Xavier thought, lent $50,000 of this man’s money to his ex girlfriend without authorisation.
He stopped on that thought.
Femi didn’t just lose leverage over Amira when I cleared that debt. He lost $50,000 of The Chairman’s money. Which means Ashworth already knows about me. Xavier looked at the window. Has probably known since the day after I made the transfer.
He felt something settle in his chest. Not fear. Something more focused than that.
This changes the geometry, he thought. I wasn’t just dealing with a student with a grudge. I walked into the edge of something that has been operating for fifteen years without a single disruption.
He read the last section of the report.
The security contact had added a personal note at the bottom. Three lines.
Recommend extreme caution. This individual has relationships with law enforcement and university administration simultaneously. Standard financial pressure will not work. If you proceed suggest you find leverage he cannot neutralise through either channel.
Xavier read those three lines twice.
Then closed the file.
He sat at his desk in the quiet of his apartment for a long moment. Juice WRLD playing low from the speaker in the corner. City outside the window doing its ordinary evening thing.
Standard financial pressure will not work, he thought.
He almost smiled.
I’m not interested in standard.
He opened a new note on his phone and started writing. Not a plan...not yet. Just observations. Things he knew. Things the report had confirmed. Things that were still gaps.
Ashworth runs the university’s Business faculty. Which means he has access to the inter faculty competition judging panel. Xavier stopped writing. Which means if he decides Amira’s project is a problem it stops being a winner regardless of quality.
He added that to the note.
Ashworth has law enforcement relationships. Which means any move I make that looks like a legal complaint goes nowhere.
He added that.
Ashworth has operated for fifteen years without disruption. Which means everyone who has tried to move against him has done it from below.
He looked at that last line for a moment.
Nobody has ever tried from above, he thought. Because nobody below him has ever had the resources to get above him.
He pulled up his balance.
$179,363.
He looked at that number with fresh eyes.
Ashworth’s entire monthly operation runs $400,000, he thought. I’m sitting on nearly $180,000 generated in under a month from a starting point of $520. With a $500,000 daily cap that resets every midnight. He put the phone down. He’s been building for fifteen years. I’ve been building for three weeks.
Give me ninety days.
He picked up his phone and called the security contact.
It picked up on the second ring.
"You read it," the voice said. Not a question.
"Everything," Xavier said. "I need a third phase."
A pause. "What kind."
"I need to know every financial institution Ashworth is personally connected to. Every investment. Every property. Every debt he holds and every debt he’s owed." Xavier looked at his notes. "And I need to know who sits above him. Not in The Cardinal Circle. In his legitimate life. Who does Daniel Ashworth answer to when he’s being a professor and not a criminal."
Silence on the line.
"That’s a different level of operation," the voice said carefully.
"I know," Xavier said. "Name your price."
Another pause. Longer this time.
"Give me a week," the voice said. "And double the phase two rate."
"Done," Xavier said and hung up.
[ REBATE SYSTEM ]
Transaction Detected: $32,000 — Security Retainer Phase 3
Base Multiplier (Tier 2): 2x
Total Return: $64,000
[ Net Balance: $147,363.00 → $211,363.00 ]
[ SIDE QUEST COMPLETE ]
First Major Intelligence Operation
Reward: +1,000 EXP
[ EXP: 10,350/50,000 ]
Xavier looked at the balance.
$211,363.
First time past two hundred thousand, he noted.
He set the phone down and looked at his notes again.
Ninety days, he thought. Ashworth has had fifteen years. I have ninety days and a system he doesn’t know exists.
He closed the note.
Fair fight.
He was about to put the phone away when a notification landed.
Instagram.
@sarah.torres.official posted a story.
He opened it.
She was at Ardmore Recording. Standing in the middle of a proper studio space, grand piano visible behind her, looking around the room with the expression of someone who had just walked into exactly what they needed and wasn’t sure yet whether to trust it.
The caption said: someone booked this for me anonymously. I don’t know who you are but I used it. thank you. the piece is finally coming together.
Xavier looked at the story for a moment.
She used it, he thought. And the piece is coming together.
He closed Instagram and leaned back in his chair.
Two operations running simultaneously, he thought. Ashworth from above. Sarah from the inside. He looked at the ceiling. Both moving on my timeline. Both going exactly where I need them to go.
He picked up his coffee.
Ninety days, he thought again.
Let’s see what Ashworth does when someone finally comes from above.