Chapter 5 - Freefall
Marcus sat in the darkened corner of his corner office, a half-empty glass of Scotch resting on the glass mahogany desk. Outside, the skyline of the city glittered indifferently. Below, satellite news vans were already parked like vultures outside the corporate headquarters, their telephoto lenses pointed up at his panoramic windows.
His chief operations officer, Ray, paced the Persian rug, his face ashen.
“Our underwriters pulled out of the European acquisition twenty minutes ago, Marcus,” Ray said, running both hands over his face. “Every single credit line is locked pending the federal investigation. The board is meeting without you right now on the forty-second floor. They’re voting to strip your executive authority.”
Marcus didn’t blink. His bloodshot eyes remained fixed on his phone screen. “Let them vote.”
“Did you hear me?” Ray shouted, losing his composure. “You’re finished! If those cryptographic keys aren’t handed over to verify the patents by tomorrow morning, the Department of Justice will indict you on wire fraud and corporate espionage!”
“She has them,” Marcus whispered, his voice dangerously low.
“Who? Maya?” Ray stared at him in utter disbelief. “Your wife? The woman you treated like an inconvenient roommate?”
Marcus stood up slowly, the Scotch glass shattering as he slammed it against the concrete pillar behind him. “She isn’t just my wife! She wrote the damn algorithms before we ever met! I merely gave them capital!”
He grabbed his overcoat from the leather couch. He remembered a detail—a forgotten conversation from three years ago. Maya had once inherited a small, forgotten parcel of land on the coast from her maternal grandmother. She had mentioned the sound of the foghorn at night, a memory he had laughed off at the time as sentimental nonsense.
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“Where are you going?” Ray called after him as Marcus strode toward the private executive elevator.
Marcus pressed the call button, his face twisted into a mask of grim obsession. “To reclaim my property.”
