Chapter 9 - Digital Warfare
"What do you mean, a freeze?" Kevin roared into the phone, his face turning an ugly shade of crimson. "Elena is dead! Her security privileges were revoked at midnight!"
"She might be dead, but her cryptographic token just pinged the main servers from inside Sterling Tower," Arthur replied calmly before hanging up the call.
Kevin swore violently, kicking the shattered glass across the room. "Victoria, where is my master authenticator? I left it right here on the nightstand!"
Victoria shrank against the headboard, tears streaming down her face, unable to speak. Kevin looked from the empty nightstand to the faint wet footprints leading from the kitchen toward the balcony drapes. His eyes dilated with sudden, manic realization.
He spun toward the curtains. "Elena?"
Elena didn't wait for him to pull back the drapes. She kicked the heavy fabric directly into his face, blinding him for a split second, and drove her heel into his knee with all the force she could muster.
Kevin howled in pain, collapsing onto one knee as the curtain wrapped around his head. Elena darted past him, sprinting out of the master bedroom and into the grand hallway.
"Stop her!" Kevin screamed, clawing the fabric from his face, his voice hysterical. "Victor! Security! Lock down the floor!"
Elena reached the private elevator, swiping the encrypted authenticator across the access pad. The doors pinged and slid open instantly. As she stepped inside and hit the button for Sub-Basement 3, Kevin lunged into the foyer, blood dripping from his nose where he had scraped against the marble floor.
"You won't leave this building alive, Elena!" he screamed as the doors closed between them. "I own everything! I own the board, I own the city, I own you!"
"You own a house of cards, Kevin," Elena said through the closing gap. "And I brought the match."
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The elevator plunged downward, passing floor after floor with dizzying speed. Elena hooked her burner phone to the encrypted USB drive. The device buzzed, unlocking a secondary partition that contained seven years of offshore bank transfers, forged board resolutions, and proof of structural sabotage on her father's vehicle five years prior.
Kevin hadn't just stolen her company; he had killed her father to take control of it.
