Chapter 7 - Infiltration at Vance Tower
Forty minutes later, a sleek black town car pulled quietly into the subterranean service bay of the fifty-story Vance Tower in downtown Detroit.
Arthur Sterling—a tall, distinguished man in a sharp charcoal suit—stepped out from the back seat, holding a locked steel briefcase. He scanned the dimly lit concrete garage, his heart hammering against his ribs.
A moment later, the heavy service elevator doors chimed and slid open.
Out stepped Emma Sullivan, casually pushing her squeaking shopping cart filled with empty plastic bottles and soda cans, with Alexander walking directly behind her, his head ducked low beneath the brim of a maintenance worker's baseball cap he had scavenged behind the library.
Arthur rushed over, grabbing Alexander by the arm and pulling him behind a concrete support pillar.
“Alex!” Arthur breathed, looking him up and down. “You look like you’ve been through a war zone.”
“War zone is putting it mildly,” Alexander muttered, straightening his cap. “Did you bring the keycard?”
“Yes, but the executive elevator is locked down by Marcus’s security team,” Arthur warned, tapping his briefcase. “They’ve got armed guards stationed at the penthouse foyer. If we try to take the main lift, we’ll trigger an alarm.”
Emma looked up from her shopping cart, pointing toward a small metal door set into the back wall of the service bay.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“That’s the old HVAC maintenance shaft,” Arthur explained. “It hasn't been used since the building was retrofitted in twenty-eighteen. The control panel is manual.”
Alexander grinned—a fierce, calculating smile that reminded Arthur why this man had built an empire from scratch.
“Manual control means no digital security cameras,” Alexander said. “Arthur, you stay down here and monitor the lobby feeds with your phone. Keep Marcus distracted if he tries to leave his office.”
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“And you?” Arthur asked anxiously.
“Emma and I are going for a climb.”
