Chapter 5 - Betrayal at 40 Floors Up
The server room door was reinforced steel with a dual biometric and keycard lock. I slid Gregory’s stolen master card through the slot and used a specialized cloning device Marcus had given me to bypass the thumbprint scanner. The lock clicked, and the door hissed open.
Inside, the room was freezing, filled with the hum of cooling fans and blinking blue LED lights. I pulled a high-speed data extraction drive from my blazer, plugged it into the main terminal, and initiated the decryption sequence.
Progress: 12%... 34%... 68%...
The screen flashed green: ACCESS GRANTED. DOWNLOADING SMUGGLING MANIFESTS & OFFSHORE LEDGERS.
Suddenly, the cold steel barrel of a revolver pressed firmly against the back of my neck.
"Don't move, Mrs. Hartman," a smooth, raspy voice hissed.
I didn't flinch. I slowly raised my hands. "Victor. I thought you were having a heart-to-heart with your son."
"My son is a weak coward," Victor growled behind me. "He broke under your pressure the second you stepped out of the room. He told me everything. You really thought you could come into my house and steal my empire, Marine?"
So Victor knew about my military background now. Gregory had cracked under the slightest pressure, just as I suspected he would. But what Victor didn't realize was that Gregory’s betrayal was part of my calculation.
"I didn't come to steal your empire, Victor," I said, eyeing the reflection of the room in the dark monitor screen ahead of me. "I came to bury it."
Progress: 100%. DOWNLOAD COMPLETE.
In one swift, practiced motion, I dropped my weight, spinning beneath the line of fire as Victor pulled the trigger. The gunshot shattered the terminal screen with a deafening bang.
I swept my leg across the floor, catching Victor behind the knees. The older man slammed heavily onto the metal grating. I grabbed his wrist, twisting the revolver out of his grip, and kicked it under the server racks.
Before Victor could recover, two armed private security guards burst into the server room with weapons drawn.
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"Drop her!" Victor roared from the floor.
I grabbed my flash-drive, kicked the nearest guard's kneecap inward with a brutal heel-strike, and used his falling body as a shield as the second guard opened fire. The room erupted into chaos.
