Chapter 16 - Nineteen Minutes
The records facility was offline by design, so Thomas couldn't erase it remotely. He had to stay close enough to trigger the deletion through a short-range maintenance network.
He was still nearby.
Tessa split the teams.
Cyber agents worked the server room.
Marshals searched the surrounding warehouses.
I stayed in the command vehicle because Tessa threatened to handcuff me to the seat if I didn't.
Lily joined by secure video from the hospital.
“Show me the admin screen,” she said.
I frowned.
“How would you know it?”
“Richard used the same software at home.”
Tessa looked at me.
“Let her.”
An agent angled the camera.
Lily stared at the screen.
“There. Bottom right. ‘Emergency mirror.’ Click it.”
The agent did.
A password box opened.
“Richard's password won't work,” Lily said. “His uncle changed it.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Richard complained about it once. He said his uncle always used dates nobody remembered.”
The countdown hit twelve minutes.
I thought about Thomas.
Then I remembered the fake death certificate.
“Try the date Thomas died.”
Wrong.
“Claire's crash?” Lily asked.
Wrong.
“Charles's death?”
Wrong.
Eight minutes.
Tessa's radio crackled.
“Movement, west warehouse.”
Agents ran.
I stared at the screen.
Forgotten dates.
Not tragedies.
Beginnings.
“Meridian's incorporation date.”
An analyst pulled it up.
April 17, 1994.
The agent typed 04171994.
ACCESS GRANTED.
The room erupted.
“Mirror now!” Lily shouted.
The agent hit the command.
The countdown froze at six minutes, thirty-two seconds.
Then the lights went out.
“Generator!” someone yelled.
A gunshot cracked over the radio.
The command vehicle went silent.
Tessa grabbed her vest and ran.
I heard another shot.
Then a marshal shouted, “Suspect moving east!”
I stayed in the vehicle.
Every instinct told me to run toward the sound.
Every promise I had made Lily told me not to.
So I listened.
Thirty seconds later, the radio came alive.
“Female hostage located.”
Melissa.
I exhaled.
Then another voice cut in.
“Thomas Vale is not with her.”
Tessa answered, “Where is he?”
A pause.
“Unknown.”
On the dark server-room camera, emergency power flickered back on.
The archive screen loaded.
A new message appeared.
May you like
THANK YOU FOR OPENING IT FOR ME.
Then files began transferring to an external device somewhere inside the building.
