Chapter 8 - THE BOARDROOM HOSTAGEThe directors stood as Evelyn entered.
For months, most of them had seen only photographs released by David’s public-relations team.
Those photographs showed a woman barely conscious.
The woman before them was pale and confined to a medical chair, but her gaze moved across the boardroom with unmistakable authority.
Samuel pushed her chair.
Margaret followed with two police officers who had reached them outside the tower. The officers stopped when David tightened his hold on Helena.
“Lower your weapons,” he ordered.
They obeyed.
Jessica stood several feet from him.
She had the access key hidden beneath a bandage around her wrist.
David did not know she had already copied it.
“Evelyn,” he said. “You look better.”
Her computer answered through a portable speaker.
RELEASE HELENA.
“Transfer the shares.”
NO.
David pressed the blade closer.
Jessica took one step toward her mother.
“David, this is finished.”
He laughed.
“You are wearing the transmitter Samuel gave you.”
Jessica touched the diamond earring.
“I found it before you entered the penthouse.”
She stared at him.
“You knew?”
“I allowed you to take the key.”
Samuel understood.
“The key is compromised.”
David looked toward the boardroom screens.
“Northbridge already has every credential it needs.”
The monitors displayed a countdown.
ASSET TRANSFER: 12:00.
Eleven minutes and fifty-nine seconds remained.
David’s plan had never depended on Evelyn signing anything.
He wanted her present to watch him dismantle her father’s company.
Evelyn’s computer spoke.
WHY?
David’s expression shifted.
“Because your father destroyed mine.”
Margaret shook her head.
“That is not what happened.”
“You were there.”
“Your father stole from the company.”
“Edward created the documents.”
“No. I helped investigate them.”
David looked at her.
Margaret continued.
“Your father was moving pension money into private accounts. Edward gave him a chance to return it without prosecution.”
“He lied to you.”
“I saw the accounts.”
David’s hand trembled for the first time.
“He died with nothing.”
“He died because he refused to admit what he had done.”
“No.”
“You built your entire life around a lie.”
David shoved Helena toward Jessica.
Then he pulled a small device from his pocket.
The countdown accelerated.
08:00.
07:59.
Samuel connected the access key to Evelyn’s computer.
A warning appeared.
MASTER CREDENTIAL REVOKED.
“We cannot stop the transfer from here,” he said.
David smiled.
“You cannot stop it at all.”
Jessica helped Helena stand.
“There must be another key.”
“There is,” Helena said.
Everyone looked at her.
“David used my medical credentials to build the biometric locks in Evelyn’s home. He needed access to a secure system that existed before he married her.”
Samuel understood.
“Protocol Black.”
Helena nodded.
“Evelyn’s father built it.”
Margaret whispered, “Edward called it the Blackbird Network.”
A hidden system independent of Sterling Global’s corporate servers.
Evelyn’s eye-tracking computer had not merely been a medical device.
It had been connected to the original Sterling security network.
Samuel opened the encrypted interface.
A request appeared.
DISCLOSE EDWARD STERLING ARCHIVE?
David moved forward.
“Do not open that.”
Evelyn looked at him.
The archive contained more than evidence against David.
It contained Edward’s investigation into the company’s earliest years.
Margaret had warned them that some of the Sterling fortune might have been built through illegal decisions made by both founding partners.
Opening it could destroy David.
It could also destroy Evelyn’s company.
Samuel asked quietly, “Are you certain?”
Evelyn blinked.
YES.
The archive opened.
Thousands of documents began transmitting to regulators, journalists, employees, and law-enforcement agencies.
Board members shouted.
The Sterling stock price fell immediately.
David stared at Evelyn.
“You are destroying your own fortune.”
Her computer answered.
IT WAS NEVER WORTH MORE THAN THE TRUTH.
David threw the activation device against the table.
The countdown continued.
04:32.
Samuel searched the archive for a system override.
“There is no shutdown command.”
Jessica looked at the access key.
“There is one person who knows the secondary code.”
“Who?” Helena asked.
Jessica pointed toward David.
“He made me memorize it.”
David turned toward her.
Jessica smiled faintly.
“He said I was too foolish to understand what it controlled.”
She entered a sequence.
The countdown stopped at 03:11.
Everyone exhaled.
Then a new warning appeared.
DATA DESTRUCTION INITIATED.
The asset transfer had been a distraction.
David was erasing the evidence contained on Sterling Global’s internal servers.
“Reverse it,” Samuel said.
Jessica tried.
ACCESS DENIED.
David moved toward the private elevator.
An officer blocked him.
The boardroom doors locked automatically.
The screens displayed the destruction progress.
Twenty percent.
Thirty-two percent.
Forty-one percent.
Helena searched David’s pockets but found no additional device.
Jessica looked toward the server diagram.
“The command is not coming from here.”
“Where is it coming from?” Samuel asked.
She examined the routing information.
Her face changed.
“From Evelyn’s bedroom.”
Someone was still inside the Sterling estate.
Someone David trusted enough to control his final escape plan.
A camera feed appeared on the boardroom screen.
A hooded figure stood beside Evelyn’s empty medical bed.
The figure turned toward the camera and removed the hood.
Evelyn’s computer went silent.
May you like
Margaret gasped.
The woman in the bedroom had Evelyn’s face.
