CHAPTER 10: THE BANQUET OF GHOSTS
The founders’ banquet began beneath crystal chandeliers and portraits of the Hart family.
Malcolm welcomed the guests with the confidence of a man who believed he had already won.
Evelyn entered wearing black.
Whispers followed her through the hall.
Some guests remembered her on her knees at the gala. Others had seen reports claiming she was mentally unstable.
Malcolm greeted her near the stage.
“You look like your mother.”
“Where is she?”
“Close.”
He offered his arm.
Evelyn ignored it.
Roman entered through the catering corridor while Naomi coordinated with federal agents outside. They could not raid the building until they confirmed Cecilia’s location.
Evelyn used Adrian’s brass key to enter a private elevator beneath the stage.
The lower level contained an archive room filled with locked cabinets.
Roman searched one side while Evelyn searched the other.
They found contracts showing Malcolm’s theft from Hart International.
They found photographs of Cecilia’s staged accident.
They found recordings of Adrian bribing doctors and threatening employees.
But they did not find Cecilia.
Then Roman discovered a television monitor.
The screen showed Cecilia tied to a chair inside a sealed room.
A timer beneath her displayed twelve minutes.
Malcolm’s voice came through the speakers.
“Your father always believed evidence would save him. He never understood that evidence only matters if someone survives to present it.”
Steel doors slammed shut around the archive room.
Gas began hissing through the vents.
Roman covered his mouth.
“He wants to destroy the archive and us with it.”
Evelyn searched the cabinets for an emergency release.
The timer continued counting down.
Nine minutes.
Eight.
Roman struck the door repeatedly, but it did not move.
Evelyn noticed a narrow pipe leading from the ventilation system toward a fire suppression tank.
She remembered something Adrian had once told her while bragging about the building.
The basement systems could be overridden from the chairman’s office.
She pulled out her phone.
No signal.
Then the television screen changed.
Adrian appeared inside Malcolm’s office.
His shirt was stained with blood from the gunshot, but he was standing.
He looked into the security camera.
“You wanted me to prove I could be useful,” he told Evelyn.
Then he pressed the fire override.
Water exploded from the ceiling.
The gas vents shut down.
The archive doors opened.
Roman and Evelyn ran toward Cecilia’s location.
Behind them, the television showed Malcolm entering his office.
He raised a gun toward Adrian.
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The screen went black.
A single shot echoed through the building.
