Chapter 3 - The Sibling’s Redemption
The meeting with Caleb was set for midnight at an abandoned diner off Route 15.
The snow was falling heavily again, the thick white flakes obscuring the road as I drove Grandpa’s old sedan through the dark. Caleb was already there, sitting in a booth in the corner of the diner, his hands wrapped around a mug of black coffee. He looked smaller than I remembered, the arrogance and privilege that had once defined him completely stripped away.
When Grandpa and I walked in, he looked up, his eyes wide with a mixture of fear and relief.
“Avery,” he whispered as I sat down opposite him. “Grandpa.”
“Caleb,” Grandpa said, sitting beside me. “You look tired.”
“I haven't slept in three days,” Caleb said, his voice cracking. “Montgomery... he’s crazy, Grandpa. He’s been bringing these men into the office—men with guns, men who look like they’ve killed people. They’re shredding everything. They’re wiping the servers.”
“Have they wiped the Apex backup drive yet?” Grandpa asked.
“No,” Caleb said, shaking his head. “They’re doing that tomorrow night at midnight. Montgomery is flying in from New York to oversee it personally. He’s going to burn the whole place down and claim it was an electrical fire to destroy the physical records.”
I felt a chill run down my spine. “He’s going to burn the warehouse?”
“Yes,” Caleb said, his hands shaking so violently he had to put his coffee cup down. “He’s going to frame me, Avery. He’s already made me sign these delivery manifests and inventory sheets with my name on them. If the place burns, the police will think I did it to cover up my father’s embezzlement.”
“He’s using you as a scapegoat, Caleb,” I said, reaching across the table and taking his cold hand. “Just like Dad used Grandpa.”
Caleb looked at me, tears finally spilling over his eyelashes. “I’m sorry, Avery. I’m so sorry. I was such a jerk to you. I thought... I thought Mom and Dad knew what they were doing. I thought we were the lucky ones. I didn't know they were stealing from Grandpa. I didn't know they were monsters.”
“We don’t have time for tears, Caleb,” Grandpa said, his voice firm but not unkind. “If you want to save yourself, and if you want to help us destroy Montgomery, you have to do exactly what I tell you.”
He pulled a small, blue USB device from his pocket and placed it on the table.
“This is a hardware cloner,” Grandpa explained. “Tomorrow night, before Montgomery arrives, you need to plug this into the main server terminal in the back office. It will automatically bypass the encryption and clone the entire database—the transaction logs, the email archives, and the offshore account details. It will take exactly four minutes.”
Caleb stared at the small blue drive as if it were a bomb. “And if they catch me?”
“They won't,” I said, looking him in the eyes. “Because I’m going to be there with you.”
Caleb blinked. “What? No, Avery, it’s too dangerous! Montgomery’s men are armed!”
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“I’m not letting you go in there alone, Caleb,” I said. “We are brother and sister. We might not have been close, but we are still family. We are going to finish this together.”
Grandpa looked at the two of us, a proud, quiet smile touching his lips. “The Whitaker strength is not in the money, children. It’s in the blood. Now, let’s get to work.”
