Chapter 8 - The Child Who Entered the Tower Twice
Graves Tower looked different at night.
The golden lobby lights were gone. Steel barricades surrounded the entrance, and Victor’s private security officers checked every employee twice.
My father wore the dead agent’s suit and badge.
Gideon wore a maintenance uniform.
My mother and I hid inside a laundry truck carrying uniforms for the tower’s private gym.
“This is a terrible plan,” my mother whispered.
Gideon closed the truck doors behind us.
“It is the only plan we have.”
“That does not make it less terrible.”
We entered the underground loading dock at 11:17 p.m.
Michael’s stolen badge opened the first checkpoint.
The second required a fingerprint.
Gideon had copied the dead agent’s print onto a thin film.
The scanner flashed green.
At the third checkpoint, a guard opened the rear doors of the truck.
My mother pulled me beneath a pile of towels.
A flashlight moved across the stacks.
The guard reached toward the exact place where we were hiding.
Then an alarm sounded near the garage entrance.
Gideon had programmed one of the delivery vehicles to roll backward into a security gate.
The guard cursed and closed the doors.
We continued inside.
The service elevator carried us to the sixty-third floor.
My father walked with difficulty, but his eyes were sharper than I had ever seen them.
“Victor will expect Nathaniel’s people,” he said. “He will not expect the dead accountant he buried eleven years ago.”
Nathaniel’s private office had been stripped.
Victor had replaced the wooden desk with a white marble one. Evelyn’s hidden safe stood open and empty behind the painting.
My mother searched the shelves.
Gideon connected a device to the security system.
“We have eight minutes before Caleb sees the cameras looping.”
My father knelt beside the silver clock on Nathaniel’s old desk.
He turned it upside down.
A small port was hidden beneath the base.
“The key does not open the vault,” he said. “It opens the clock.”
My mother unfolded the paper doll.
Michael entered the numbers.
The clock face slid apart.
Inside was a black data chip.
My father removed it with shaking fingers.
“This is it.”
The office lights came on.
Caleb Shaw stood in the doorway.
Six guards surrounded him.
“You always were clever, Michael.”
Gideon raised his gun.
Caleb smiled.
“Your daughter is standing directly behind you.”
Gideon hesitated.
That was enough.
The guards disarmed him.
Caleb entered the room and looked at me.
“The famous Ruby Bennett.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“I tried to prevent a civil war.”
“You helped Victor.”
“I helped the man capable of winning.”
My mother moved in front of me.
Caleb pointed his pistol at her.
“Give me the chip.”
My father held it tightly.
“Once Victor has it, he will kill you.”
“Perhaps. But until then, he pays extremely well.”
A voice spoke from behind Caleb.
“He also lies.”
Ms. Voss stepped into the office.
I stared at her.
Nathaniel had shot her outside the detention facility.
She should have been dead.
A bandage wrapped her shoulder beneath her black jacket.
“You survived,” my mother said.
“Mr. Graves missed my heart.”
Ms. Voss raised her gun.
For one brief moment, I believed she was still working with Caleb.
Then she shot him in the leg.
The office erupted.
Gideon drove his shoulder into one guard.
My mother pulled me behind the marble desk.
Michael crawled toward the wall with the data chip.
Ms. Voss fired at Caleb’s men.
Caleb returned fire, striking her in the side.
She fell beside me.
“Why are you helping us?” I asked.
Blood darkened her shirt.
“Because Victor sent men to finish me at the hospital.”
“That surprised you?”
She almost laughed.
“Yes.”
Gideon subdued the last guard.
Caleb crawled toward the elevator.
My father blocked him with the cane.
“You destroyed eleven years of my life.”
Caleb spat blood onto the carpet.
“You were never supposed to survive eleven days.”
Michael raised the cane.
My mother caught his arm.
“Not in front of Ruby.”
My father looked at me.
Then he lowered it.
Gideon restrained Caleb.
Michael inserted the data chip into the office computer.
Code filled every screen.
“Victor’s network is still connected.”
“Can you copy the evidence?” Claire asked.
“I can release it publicly.”
“Do it.”
Michael began typing.
A progress bar appeared.
UPLOAD: 3%.
The elevators shut down.
The tower’s emergency doors sealed.
Victor appeared on every screen.
He sat inside Nathaniel’s former boardroom.
Behind him were senators, corporate executives, and members of the Graves board.
“Welcome home, Michael.”
My father continued typing.
Victor smiled.
“You cannot release the files. The moment the upload reaches ten percent, this building’s fire-control system will flood the server floors with gas.”
“People are still inside,” my mother said.
“Nearly four hundred.”
The progress bar reached 7%.
Victor leaned closer to the camera.
“Stop the upload, or everyone in Graves Tower dies.”
My father’s hands froze.
I looked around Nathaniel’s office.
The silver clock remained open on the desk.
Beside the data chip compartment was a second button.
I pressed it.
A hidden recording began to play.
Evelyn’s voice filled the room.
Victor, if you are hearing this, you found the wrong key.
Victor’s smile vanished from the screens.
The upload jumped from 7% to 100%.
Every document in his network was sent to newspapers, federal judges, foreign governments, and millions of private email addresses.
Victor rose from his chair.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
Then the tower alarms began screaming.
A mechanical voice announced:
SERVER DESTRUCTION SEQUENCE ACTIVATED.
Gideon checked the control panel.
“Victor triggered it manually.”
“How long?” my mother asked.
The display began counting down.
Four minutes.
May you like
Michael looked toward the sealed elevator doors.
“We’re sixty-three floors above the street.”
