Chapter 9 - Eleven Hours
Andrew wrapped his jacket around Mariana’s face.
Security officers fired at the locked door.
The metal absorbed the bullets.
The gas thickened.
Mariana searched the walls.
Her mother would never have designed a room without an escape.
She found a small emerald symbol beneath the desk.
When she pressed it, a floor panel opened.
“Down,” she ordered.
The officers entered first.
Mariana followed.
Andrew climbed in last.
The panel closed above them.
They crawled through a narrow service tunnel as alarms sounded behind them.
The tunnel ended inside an abandoned parking garage.
A black car waited nearby.
There was no driver.
An envelope rested on the windshield.
Mariana opened it.
Inside was a handwritten message.
DO NOT TRUST THE COUNTDOWN.
THE ATTACK HAS ALREADY BEGUN.
Andrew called headquarters.
No one answered.
Mariana tried her father.
The call went directly to voicemail.
Rafael’s number was disconnected.
Margaret remained inside police custody.
Samuel was still in surgery.
Daniel was missing.
Every major player had been isolated.
Mariana’s phone displayed an emergency notification.
Escalante financial systems were under attack.
Billions of dollars were being transferred through hundreds of foreign accounts.
The transaction codes carried Mariana’s authorization.
“Someone is making it look like you are stealing your own company,” Andrew said.
“They are not stealing the money.”
Mariana studied the transfer routes.
“They are creating evidence.”
“Evidence of what?”
“Embezzlement.”
She called the international banking network.
Her executive authority had been suspended.
Rafael had filed an emergency petition claiming that Mariana was mentally unstable and financially dangerous.
The petition included photographs of her injured face.
It stated that she had attacked Andrew during a domestic dispute.
Andrew stared at the document.
“He is using what I did.”
“He is using what you allowed the world to believe.”
Andrew called his attorney.
“I will make a public statement.”
“That will not stop the transfers.”
“It may stop the claim that you attacked me.”
Mariana looked at him.
“You would admit everything?”
“Yes.”
“You could be arrested.”
“I should have been arrested last night.”
His answer surprised her.
Before she could respond, a message appeared on Andrew’s phone.
It came from Brenda.
I KNOW WHERE DANIEL IS.
COME ALONE OR HE DIES.
A location followed.
It was an abandoned Whitmore manufacturing plant.
Andrew showed Mariana.
“It is a trap,” she said.
“Obviously.”
“You are not going.”
“Daniel may know how the signatures were stolen.”
“And Brenda may kill you before he speaks.”
Andrew placed his phone in his pocket.
“You need to stop the financial attack.”
“I can handle Brenda.”
“You have handled everything with anger.”
“I am trying to handle this differently.”
Mariana considered the countdown.
Ten hours remained.
They could not afford to ignore Daniel.
“I will send security.”
“The message says alone.”
“She expects you to obey.”
“She also expects you not to tell anyone.”
Andrew looked at the officers.
“We can use that.”
Mariana reluctantly agreed.
She returned to headquarters through a secure entrance.
Andrew drove toward the abandoned plant with tracking devices hidden in his clothes.
Inside the executive command center, Mariana traced the fraudulent transfers.
Every transaction originated from a server beneath Whitmore Global.
A server Andrew had ordered Daniel to install two years earlier.
Andrew reached the factory.
His camera transmitted the dark interior.
“Brenda?” he called.
A light switched on.
Daniel sat tied to a chair.
His face was bruised.
Brenda stood behind him holding a gun.
“You came alone,” she said.
Andrew raised his hands.
“What do you want?”
“Mariana’s access code.”
“I do not have it.”
Brenda aimed at Daniel.
“Then call her.”
Andrew looked toward the hidden camera.
Mariana heard everything.
Before Andrew could speak, another man stepped from the shadows.
He removed the imitation gold ring from his left hand.
It was Elias.
He smiled toward Andrew’s camera as though he knew Mariana was watching.
Then he turned to Brenda.
“You were told to kill Daniel before Andrew arrived.”
Brenda’s hand began trembling.
“I cannot do it.”
May you like
Elias raised his own weapon.
“That is why you were never going to leave this building.”
