Chapter 6 - THE MAN IN THE BASEMENT
Adrian covered his mouth and moved toward the control panel.
“Nonlethal suppressant,” he said. “Probably designed to knock us unconscious.”
“How long?” Claire asked.
“Less than two minutes.”
Alexander removed his suit jacket and pressed the fabric over Claire’s nose and mouth.
“Finish the transfer block.”
“What about you?”
“I will remain conscious longer.”
“That isn’t a plan.”
“It is the current one.”
Claire sat at the terminal.
The authorization system had been altered. Every command redirected to a false approval screen, while the real transfer continued beneath it.
Thirty-four seconds.
She opened the diagnostic console.
Behind her, Adrian forced a tool between the door and frame.
The metal would not move.
Marcus’s voice returned through the speaker.
“You should have stayed away from the Whitmores, Alex.”
Alexander stood beneath the vent.
“You should have chosen a better hiding place.”
Marcus laughed.
“You still think this is about hiding?”
Claire’s fingers moved across the keys.
She found a secondary transaction.
The twenty-five-million-dollar transfer was a distraction.
A much larger request waited behind it.
Two hundred and forty million dollars.
Destination unknown.
“Alexander.”
He came to her side.
She pointed.
His eyes hardened.
“That account contains the harbor acquisition reserve.”
“If the transfer completes, the project collapses.”
“And federal investigators will believe you approved it.”
The countdown reached twenty seconds.
Claire searched for the source code.
The gas thickened.
Her vision blurred.
Alexander leaned closer.
“Stay with me.”
“I am.”
“You are slowing down.”
“Your concern is distracting.”
To her surprise, he almost smiled.
Marcus spoke again.
“Do you remember Elena?”
Alexander’s expression turned to stone.
Claire looked at the photograph she had seen in the library.
The dark-haired woman beside a younger Alexander.
“Elena Vale?” she asked.
Marcus laughed softly.
“He never told you?”
Alexander looked toward the speaker.
“You lost the right to say her name.”
“She was my sister too.”
Claire stopped typing.
Marcus Reed was related to Alexander’s wife.
She had not even known Alexander had been married.
The countdown reached twelve seconds.
Claire forced herself back to the terminal.
A hidden command was embedded inside the biometric program. The transaction depended on the camera verifying a live human face.
She opened the camera feed and replaced it with a repeating error pattern.
The timer reached three seconds.
Two.
One.
TRANSACTION FAILED.
Claire exhaled.
A second warning appeared.
RESERVE TRANSFER INITIATED.
The hidden transaction began counting down from sixty seconds.
“Of course,” she whispered.
Alexander placed a hand on the desk as the gas affected him.
“Can you stop it?”
“Yes.”
It was not entirely true.
She could stop it if she destroyed every active authorization token tied to the acquisition.
Doing so would also erase months of contracts and potentially expose Vale Global to enormous penalties.
Claire opened the emergency command line.
“Alexander, I need permission to purge the account.”
“What does that cost?”
“Possibly the entire harbor project.”
“Do it.”
“You could lose hundreds of millions.”
“I can earn money again.”
He looked at her through the haze.
“I cannot replace you.”
Claire’s hands froze above the keys.
The words were not spoken romantically.
They were spoken as fact.
That made them more powerful.
She entered the purge command.
The system requested executive approval.
Alexander pressed his thumb to the reader.
ACCESS DENIED.
Marcus had removed his authorization.
The countdown reached thirty-eight seconds.
Claire tried her own credentials.
ACCESS DENIED.
Adrian struck the door again.
Nothing.
The gas became heavier.
Claire searched the terminal for another route.
Then she noticed the date embedded in the server certificate.
Twelve years earlier.
The year her father died.
She opened the ownership record.
The original administrator was Thomas Bennett.
Her father.
Claire stared at the screen.
“That’s impossible.”
Alexander leaned over her shoulder.
“What?”
“This security architecture was created by my father.”
The countdown reached twenty-nine seconds.
A memory returned.
Her father teaching her to build simple encryption puzzles at the kitchen table.
He always used the same recovery phrase.
Not because it was secure, he joked, but because no thief would understand what it meant.
Claire entered the phrase.
BLUE HARBOR, EMPTY SKY.
The screen unlocked.
She received administrator access.
“How did you know that?” Alexander asked.
“My father taught me.”
Claire executed the purge.
The reserve transfer stopped with nine seconds remaining.
Every monitor went black.
At the same moment, the door unlocked.
Adrian pulled it open.
Fresh air rushed inside.
Claire tried to stand, but her knees buckled.
Alexander caught her.
They stumbled into the stairwell.
Security officers met them halfway up and provided oxygen masks.
Claire sat on the steps, breathing deeply.
Alexander remained beside her.
Adrian checked the communication system.
“The ballroom doors are open. Guests are being moved outside.”
“What about Marcus?” Alexander asked.
“No sign.”
Claire looked back toward the basement.
“He wanted us to find the old server.”
Alexander’s face was grim.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To show me that your father was involved.”
Claire removed the oxygen mask.
“Involved in what?”
Before Alexander could answer, Daniel appeared at the top of the stairs.
His bow tie hung loose. Blood marked one sleeve.
“Claire.”
She stood.
“What happened?”
“Vanessa disappeared.”
Alexander moved past him.
“How?”
“The lights went out. When they came back, she was gone.”
Daniel held out a folded piece of paper.
“She left this on the altar.”
Claire opened it.
May you like
Only one sentence was written inside.
Ask Alexander what happened to your father.
