Chapter 685: The Blackout
Michael knew something had changed before anyone came to tell him.
The devices had already been taken away days earlier, so there was nothing new about the empty table or the silence that followed the removal of his outside communications. He had adjusted to that part. What he had not adjusted to was the possibility that the remaining privileges could disappear as well.
He was sitting near the small table in his room when the door opened. An officer stepped inside, carrying a folder that looked almost too ordinary for the kind of conversation that was about to take place.
"Mr. Erickson, I need to inform you about a change to your custody arrangements."
Michael looked at him for a moment before putting down the paper he had been reading.
"What change?"
"Effective immediately, your remaining special privileges are suspended."
Michael’s attention sharpened. "Which privileges?"
The officer checked the folder, although Michael suspected the man already knew the answer.
"Private visitors, special communications, unsupervised meetings, and any other arrangements outside the normal custody procedures. From now on, everything goes through the standard process."
Michael sat back.
"The devices were already taken."
"I know."
"So what exactly are you changing?"
"Everything that was being allowed beyond the normal procedures."
Michael studied the officer carefully. There was no hostility in the man’s voice. He was not trying to intimidate him, and he did not seem interested in arguing. He was simply delivering a decision that had already been made.
"Who made the decision?"
"The department."
"Who in the department?"
"I don’t have that information."
Michael looked toward the open doorway and then back at the officer. "Why?"
The officer closed the folder.
"You already know why."
Michael did not answer immediately.
He did know.
That was the problem.
The devices had been removed earlier. The unusual visitors, private conversations, documents and other arrangements had already become a vulnerability. Someone had noticed. Someone had looked closely enough to know that his custody arrangements were not normal.
Michael’s voice remained calm when he spoke again.
"Are you saying I can’t receive anyone?"
"Not under the special arrangements you had before. If someone needs to visit you, they will have to go through the normal approval process."
"And communications?"
"Normal procedures."
Michael gave a short laugh that contained no humor. "You know those procedures are not going to allow what I had before."
The officer did not respond.
Michael looked at him for another moment. "So this is permanent?"
"Until the review is completed."
"Review by who?"
The officer’s expression remained neutral.
"You already know enough about the situation to understand why this is happening. I’m not here to discuss the investigation with you."
Michael leaned back in his chair.
There was no point pushing further. The officer was not the person who had made the decision, and even if he knew more than he was saying, he clearly had no intention of giving Michael anything useful.
"So you’re just informing me."
"Yes."
Michael looked down at the table.
That was worse than an argument.
An argument meant there was still someone on the other side who could be pressured, persuaded or negotiated with. This was different. The decision had already moved beyond him.
The officer turned toward the door.
"From this point forward, any request you make will be handled through the normal custody process."
Michael said nothing.
The door closed behind the officer, leaving him alone again.
For several seconds, he remained seated.
He knew something had happened outside.
He simply did not know what.
That distinction mattered.
Michael had spent years building his life around information. He knew who was moving money, who was speaking to whom, which companies were safe to approach, which people could be trusted and which institutions could be influenced. Even inside custody, he had managed to preserve a small amount of that connection.
Now that connection was gone.
He could not call anyone.
He could not ask someone to check on his accounts.
He could not receive a private visitor and quietly ask what was happening.
He could not even be certain that the people who had previously been helping him were still willing to do so.
For the first time since his arrest, Michael had no reliable way to look outside.
He could only wait.
---
Silas received the same decision later that morning.
The IRS facility was quieter than the police station, and the officer who entered his holding area carried no folder that suggested a negotiation was coming. He simply had a short document in his hand and the expression of someone who had already been given instructions.
"Mr. Vane, there has been a change to your custody arrangements."
Silas looked up from the material in front of him.
"What change?"
"Your remaining special privileges have been suspended."
Silas took a moment before answering.
"My devices were already removed."
"Yes."
"So this concerns visitors and communications."
"Visitors, private meetings, special communications and any other arrangements outside the normal custody process."
Silas looked toward the door.
"Why?"
The officer met his eyes.
"You already know why."
Silas almost smiled at that, although there was nothing amusing about it.
"That answer usually means someone doesn’t want to explain."
"I’m not here to explain the investigation."
Silas closed the file in front of him.
"Then what are you here to do?"
"Inform you of the decision."
Silas remained quiet.
The officer continued, "From now on, you will follow the same procedures as any other person in custody under this facility’s rules. No special visitors. No private communications. No outside devices. If you want to make a request, it goes through the proper channel."
Silas looked at the officer for several seconds.
"Review by who?"
"The people responsible for your custody arrangements."
"That’s all you know?"
"That’s all I’m authorized to tell you."
Silas leaned back.
Unlike Michael, he did not spend time arguing with the decision. He understood that the man standing in front of him had not come to negotiate. Whatever had happened had already reached the people who controlled his custody.
He had lost something more important than a visitor or a private conversation.
He had lost access.
Silas had built his power around connections that extended far beyond the people standing in front of him. Even while inside custody, he had remained useful because he could still reach the outside world through controlled channels.
Now those channels had been closed.
The officer waited for any further questions.
Silas finally said, "So I am completely cut off."
"For now, yes."
The officer left after that.
Silas remained where he was, staring at the closed door.
He had enough experience to understand what the decision meant.
Someone had discovered something.
The devices being removed had been the first warning. This was the next step.
The authorities had decided that whatever had been allowed before was no longer worth the risk.
Silas considered the people who could have exposed it.
An officer.
A former associate.
Someone connected to the financial investigation.
Someone who had seen more than they were supposed to.
His thoughts eventually reached Michael, but he dismissed the possibility almost immediately. Michael had too much to lose and too much reason to protect the same arrangements.
Another name entered his mind.
Dayo.
Silas did not stay with it for long.
There was no evidence.
No message.
No visitor.
No piece of information that allowed him to make the connection.
That was what made the situation difficult.
He knew something had changed, but he had no way to discover what.
---
The decisions had been reached separately, but the reasoning behind them was almost identical.
John Philip had reviewed the evidence concerning Michael’s custody arrangements and decided that the department could no longer justify allowing exceptions that had already been abused.
David Whitmore had reached the same conclusion regarding Silas.
Neither man needed to know who had sent the original evidence before taking action. They knew enough to understand that the previous arrangements created a security problem.
If someone outside the institutions knew about the unusual access, there was no guarantee that the people benefiting from that access were the only ones who knew about it.
Philip did not want Michael receiving information that could help him interfere with the investigation.
Whitmore had the same concern about Silas.
Until the internal reviews were completed, both men would remain under normal custody procedures, with no special access and no visitors outside the approved process.
The decision was not announced to the public.
There was no statement.
There was no press conference.
Inside the two facilities, however, the effect was immediate.
Michael was cut off.
Silas was cut off.
Neither man could reach the other.
Neither could ask someone from outside to investigate what was happening.
Neither could receive a private visitor who might bring information.
The wall between custody and the outside world had become much thicker.
---
Dayo received the update from Felix before noon.
They were sitting in the same room where they had waited for the first response to the evidence package. Felix had his laptop open, several documents arranged across the screen while Dayo looked through the latest messages.
"They did it," Felix said.
Dayo looked up. "Both?"
"Both."
Felix turned the laptop toward him. "Michael’s remaining privileges have been suspended. The police are putting everything through normal custody procedures."
Dayo read the summary.
"What about Silas?"
"Same thing. Whitmore’s people have restricted his access as well."
Dayo sat back.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Felix watched him.
"You got what you wanted."
Dayo looked at the documents again.
"Not everything."
"The first part."
"Yes."
That was the part that mattered.
Dayo had wanted Michael and Silas separated from the outside world before he made the next move. He had spent too much time watching them use connections from inside custody to interfere with things outside. Even without knowing every person they had access to, he knew the privileges created opportunities.
Now those opportunities were gone.
Michael could not reach his people.
Silas could not reach his people.
Neither knew what was happening beyond the walls.
That gave Dayo the space he had been waiting for.
Felix closed the previous report and opened another folder.
"This is the rest."
Dayo looked at the screen.
There were financial records, company structures, account information, transaction histories, communications, ownership links and material connected to the wider investigation. Some of the evidence had already been shared with investigators before, but not everything.
Dayo had deliberately held some of it back.
He had wanted Michael and Silas to believe they still had room to move.
Even after the kidnapping and the rescue, even after the institutions had begun looking into their activities, Dayo had resisted the temptation to put every piece of information into the hands of investigators at once.
Part of him had wanted to understand the network first.
Another part had wanted to watch Michael and Silas struggle.
Now he no longer needed to preserve that space.
"How much is there?" he asked.
"Enough."
Felix paused before continuing. "If we send all of it, the investigations will expand."
"That’s the point."
"You understand that once it goes out, we don’t control what happens next."
Dayo nodded.
"I know."
Felix looked at him for a moment. "Banks are going to react differently from the police. Some will open reviews. Some will restrict transactions. Some will ask questions before they do anything else. We can’t tell them what decision to make."
"We don’t need to."
Dayo pointed toward the financial records.
"We give them the evidence connected to their accounts and let them decide what their own procedures require."
Felix understood.
The files were separated carefully.
The financial material would go to the authorities handling the financial investigation and to the institutions responsible for the relevant accounts and transactions. The criminal evidence would go to the police and the agencies already working on the wider case. Material connected to shell companies, transfers, ownership structures and suspicious activity would be provided where it could be properly examined.
Nothing would be presented as a command.
Dayo was not ordering a bank to freeze an account.
He was not telling an investigator what conclusion to reach.
He was giving them the information they had not previously possessed.
Felix looked through the folders one more time.
"You’re really sending everything."
Dayo’s eyes stayed on the screen.
"Yes."
---
The first response came from a bank less than an hour later.
A compliance department had received information concerning several transactions and ownership structures connected to one of the companies under review. The material was enough to trigger an internal examination.
Another institution received a separate package.
A different account was placed under review while the bank requested supporting documents concerning several transfers.
None of it happened dramatically.
There were no alarms.
No public announcement.
People simply began asking questions.
An investigator reviewing the financial material noticed that two companies that appeared unrelated shared a connection that had not been obvious in the earlier investigation. A second review found that money had moved between accounts belonging to different entities at times that matched communications already in police files.
Another team followed a different trail and found a payment route that led back toward a company already associated with the wider network.
The evidence did not solve everything at once.
It did something more important.
It gave the institutions enough material to start pulling at connections that had previously been difficult to prove.
Felix kept receiving confirmations.
"Another bank has opened a review."
Dayo looked at the message on his phone.
"Keep going."
A few minutes later, another notification arrived.
The police had received the criminal evidence package and attached it to the existing investigation.
The federal side confirmed receipt of the financial material.
More requests followed.
Documents.
Account records.
Ownership information.
Transaction explanations.
The movement was spreading.
Dayo watched without saying much.
For months, Michael and Silas had survived partly because information was fragmented. One institution had one piece. Another had something else. A third had a suspicion but not enough evidence to connect it.
Dayo had just removed one of the biggest problems.
The pieces were now sitting in front of the people who could compare them.
---
Michael knew none of this.
That was the point.
He spent the afternoon inside the police facility with no visitor arriving and no message from anyone outside.
The silence was beginning to feel different.
Before, even without his devices, there had been signs that the outside world was still within reach. Someone could visit. Someone could pass through. An arrangement could be made.
Now there was nothing.
He asked for an update through the normal custody process and received only the information he was entitled to receive.
His case remained under review.
His legal rights remained unchanged.
His custody restrictions had been updated.
That was all.
Michael returned to his room and sat down.
He thought about the people outside.
He wondered whether they were still following the old instructions.
He wondered whether anyone had realized that he could no longer communicate with them.
Most of all, he wondered what had happened to cause the authorities to move so suddenly.
He had no answer.
The uncertainty was becoming its own problem.
---
Silas was facing the same silence.
He had tried to understand the change by studying the behavior of the people around him, but they gave him almost nothing.
The security procedures were tighter.
Visitors were no longer coming through.
The private arrangements had disappeared.
Questions about his custody were redirected through formal channels.
He had no way to know whether the problem was limited to the facility or whether something larger was happening outside.
Silas sat alone for a long time.
His mind returned to the same question.
Who knew?
He could not call Michael to ask.
He could not send someone to check.
He could not ask a trusted associate to look into his accounts.
Even if something was happening outside, he would have no way of confirming it.
That was the part he disliked most.
Silas had spent his entire life making sure that information reached him before it reached other people.
Now information was moving around him while he remained completely outside it.
---
By evening, Felix closed the final folder.
"The last package has gone."
Dayo looked at him.
"Everything?"
"Everything we decided to send."
Dayo sat quietly for a moment.
There was no satisfaction on his face.
He knew what would happen next would no longer be controlled by him.
Investigators would follow their own procedures.
Banks would make their own decisions.
Authorities would decide which evidence mattered and which required more verification.
People connected to Michael and Silas would begin receiving questions.
Some would cooperate.
Some would deny everything.
Others might try to protect themselves.
Dayo had accepted all of that before giving Felix the instruction.
"What do you think they’ll do?" Felix asked.
Dayo looked toward the window.
"Michael and Silas?"
Felix nodded.
"They don’t know."
"Know what?"
"Any of this."
Dayo understood immediately.
Neither Michael nor Silas knew the full evidence had gone out.
Neither knew the banks were beginning to review accounts.
Neither knew investigators were comparing financial records.
Neither knew how far the authorities had already gone.
They only knew that their special privileges had disappeared.
Their world outside had become silent.
Dayo looked back at Felix.
"That’s enough for now."
Felix closed the laptop.
For the first time since the kidnapping, Dayo had stopped trying to predict every move Michael and Silas might make. There was nothing they could do immediately because they had been denied the one thing they depended on most.
Information.
Inside two separate custody facilities, Michael and Silas were sitting with the same problem. They both knew something had changed, but neither could see beyond the walls around them, neither could contact the other, and neither could reach the people who might have given them answers.
Outside those walls, the investigations were already moving.
Accounts were being reviewed.
Records were being compared.
Questions were being sent.
People who had once operated quietly were beginning to find that the institutions around them had started looking in places they had previously ignored.
Dayo had wanted Michael and Silas to believe that the outside world was still partly safe.
He had given them that illusion for as long as he needed it.
Now he had taken it away.
Michael and Silas did not know what was happening outside.
They only knew that something was happening.
And for the first time, there was nothing they could do to find out.