Chapter 18 - Three Floors Up
He was trying to reach the server room before federal agents could image the last archive.
Michael started toward the elevators.
Martinez blocked him.
"Absolutely not."
Then the fire alarm sounded.
Smoke began pouring from an upper stairwell.
Victor was destroying evidence again.
Employees flooded toward the exits. I grabbed Lily's carrier and moved with them until I saw Mara stop.
"My laptop," she said.
"Forget it."
"It has the decrypted vendor keys."
"Mara!"
She ran back.
I handed Lily to a security officer I trusted and chased her before common sense could catch me.
On the thirty-first floor, sprinklers blasted cold water. Smoke rolled across the ceiling.
Mara reached the conference room and grabbed the laptop.
A door slammed behind us.
Victor stood in the hallway.
"You should have stayed quiet," he told Mara.
I stepped between them.
He laughed. "Emma, you have terrible survival instincts."
"So do you. You're trapped in a burning building."
He raised a handgun.
"Not if I have a way downstairs."
He grabbed my arm and dragged me toward the service stairs.
Mara screamed.
Then Michael appeared through the smoke.
Victor pointed the gun at him.
Michael stopped.
"Let her go."
Victor smiled. "Your mother said the same thing about Andrew. Right before she decided not to."
He pulled me backward.
The sprinkler water made the tile slick.
His foot slid.
I drove my elbow into his ribs and dropped.
Michael tackled him.
The gun skidded across the floor.
Martinez and two officers charged in and pinned Victor against the wall.
As they cuffed him, he started laughing.
"You think you won?"
Michael stared down at him.
Victor nodded toward Mara's laptop.
"Open the folder marked FINAL BENEFICIARY."
Mara's face drained of color.
May you like
"There's one more transfer," she said.
"And it doesn't go to Diane."
