Chapter 6
The next twenty hours were a blur.
Elara, Julian, and Lila holed up in the penthouse, turning it into a war room.
Mr. Torres showed up with three more lawyers and a team of IT forensics experts.
Detective Miller brought two FBI agents who specialized in corporate espionage.
Elara’s PI—Jesse, a tough ex-cop with a tattoo of a snake on his neck—arrived with a thick file on Cole Henderson.
They spread papers across every flat surface.
Pinned photos to the walls.
Mapped out every move Cole had made in the last ten years.
“Cole Henderson is a ghost,” Jesse said, tapping a photo of a handsome man in his forties with cold blue eyes and a scar along his jaw. “No real birth certificate. No social security number before he turned twenty-five. We know he did three tours in the Army Rangers. Honorable discharge. Then he went to work for a private security firm in Eastern Europe. Did wet work for the highest bidder. He showed up on Margaret Hale’s payroll nine years ago. One month after the lab fire.”
“Wet work?” Lila said, her face pale.
“Killing,” Julian said quietly.
Jesse nodded.
“Our intel says he’s the one who set the fire,” he said. “Margaret paid him half a million up front, another half when Clara was confirmed dead. He’s been her enforcer ever since. Killed two business partners who tried to leave the company. Made a reporter who was digging into the Viraflu trials disappear. He’s good. Really good. And he doesn’t leave loose ends.”
“Except us,” Elara said.
“Except you,” Jesse agreed. “And he hates loose ends. Which means he’s not gonna stop with the data leak. He’s gonna come for you. Probably tonight.”
Detective Miller nodded.
“We’ve got two plainclothes units on the hotel,” he said. “Snipers on the roof across the street. No one gets in or out without us knowing. But Cole is ex-Ranger. He’ll find a way if he wants in bad enough. You three need to stay together. No going anywhere alone. Not even the bathroom.”
Elara looked at the clock.
Four hours left.
“Where is he now?” she asked Jesse.
“Our last ping put him at a warehouse in the Meatpacking District,” Jesse said. “Owned by a shell company tied to Margaret. We think that’s where he’s keeping the real laptop. And where he’s gonna upload the data from when the clock runs out.”
Elara stood up.
“Let’s go get it,” she said.
Everyone stared at her.
“Are you insane?” Detective Miller said. “That place is probably booby-trapped. Cole is probably waiting for you. We can’t just storm in there with no warrant, no backup—”
“We don’t need a warrant,” Elara said. “We need to get that laptop before he uploads the data. Every minute we wait, more people find out about the leak. The CDC just issued a statement. Parents are already refusing to give their kids the vaccine. If we don’t stop this in the next four hours, kids are gonna die. Real kids. Innocent kids. I’m not gonna let that happen. Not when I can stop it.”
Julian stood up next to her.
“I’m going with you,” he said.
“Like hell you are,” Lila said. “Both of you! This is crazy! Cole is a trained killer! He’ll shoot you both before you get through the front door!”
“Then we don’t go through the front door,” Elara said.
She turned to Jesse.
“Tell me about the warehouse. Does it have a back entrance? A roof access? Sewer lines?”
Jesse smiled.
He pulled up a set of blueprints on his tablet.
“I like the way you think, kid,” he said.
Three hours later.
11:30 PM.
Thirty minutes until Cole’s deadline.
Elara and Julian crouched behind a dumpster in the alley behind the warehouse.
They were dressed head to toe in black.
Elara had a taser in one pocket, a can of pepper spray in the other, and a knife Jesse had given her strapped to her ankle.
Julian had the same.
Detective Miller had argued until he was blue in the face.
But in the end, he’d agreed.
Because Elara was right.
They were out of time.
“Remember the plan,” Elara whispered. “We go in through the sewer grate around the side. Make our way up to the second floor. That’s where the server room is. Jesse and the cops will hit the front in twenty-five minutes. We just need to hold on until then. Grab the laptop. Get out. No heroics. Got it?”
“Got it,” Julian whispered.
“Good.”
They moved.
Quiet as shadows.
The sewer grate was rusted.
Julian pried it open with a crowbar Jesse had given him.
They climbed down.
The smell was awful.
Sewage.
Rot.
Death.
Elara didn’t flinch.
She’d slept in worse places.
They waded through the muck for a hundred yards.
Found the ladder leading up to the warehouse’s basement.
Julian climbed first.
Pushed the basement door open a crack.
Listened.
No one there.
He signaled Elara to follow.
They crept up the basement stairs.
The warehouse was dark.
Quiet.
Too quiet.
They made their way to the second floor.
The server room door was slightly ajar.
Light spilled out into the hallway.
Voices.
Two men.
One was Cole.
The other was a man Elara didn’t recognize.
“…the upload is set to go in twenty minutes,” the unknown man said. “Once it hits the dark web, it’ll spread to every news outlet in the world in five minutes. There’s no stopping it.”
“Good,” Cole said. “Margaret will be pleased. Once the Viraflu name is toxic, we’ll rebrand the vaccine under a new company. Make another ten billion. And the Bennett brats? They’ll take the fall for the bad trials. They’ll go to prison for fraud. Margaret gets out on appeal. We all win.”
Elara looked at Julian.
He was furious.
His hands were shaking.
She put a finger to her lips.
Peeked around the door frame.
The server room was full of blinking lights.
In the middle of the room, on a metal table, was Julian’s laptop.
Plugged into a server.
The upload progress bar was at 70%.
Thirty percent to go.
Eighteen minutes left.
There were two men in the room.
Cole.
And a big guy with a shaved head and a gun on his hip.
Two against two.
But they had the element of surprise.
Elara mouthed to Julian:
I take Cole. You take the big guy.
Julian nodded.
Elara counted down on her fingers.
Three.
Two.
One.
They burst through the door.
Elara hit Cole with the taser before he could turn around.
He went down with a grunt.
Julian tackled the big guy.
They crashed into a rack of servers.
The big guy threw Julian off like he was a rag doll.
Pulled his gun.
Elara grabbed a metal keyboard off the table.
Threw it as hard as she could.
It hit the big guy square in the head.
He staggered.
Julian jumped up.
Hit him in the throat with the edge of his hand.
The big guy dropped the gun.
Gasped for air.
Julian kicked him in the head.
He went down.
Out cold.
Elara ran to the laptop.
The upload was at 89%.
Ten minutes left.
She grabbed the laptop.
Tried to yank the cord out.
It was locked in place.
A security lock.
“Julian!” she shouted. “The cord! It’s locked!”
Julian ran over.
Pulled a small screwdriver from his pocket—he’d grabbed it from the hotel room’s tool kit.
Pried at the lock.
Hurry, Elara thought. Hurry hurry hurry.
92%.
93%.
94%.
The lock popped.
Elara ripped the cord out.
The upload stopped.
97%.
Three percent short.
She let out a breath.
Then a hand grabbed her hair.
Yanked her backward.
Cole.
The taser had only slowed him down.
He was bigger than he looked.
Stronger.
He threw Elara across the room.
She hit a server rack.
Hard.
Stars exploded in her eyes.
“Stupid girl,” Cole snarled. He picked up the big guy’s gun. Pointed it at Julian. “You think you can stop me? I’ve killed people bigger and stronger than both of you put together. Your mom begged me not to burn the lab down, you know. She offered me all her money. All her research. I told her money didn’t matter. Margaret paid more. Then I locked her in the supply closet and lit the match. She screamed for ten minutes. Ten whole minutes. It was music to my ears.”
Julian froze.
Rage rolled off him in waves.
Cole smiled.
He turned the gun toward Elara.
“First you,” he said. “Then the boy. Then the little bride waiting in the car. I’ll make it slow. Just like your mom.”
He pulled the trigger.
Click.
Empty.
The big guy hadn’t reloaded.
Cole’s smile vanished.
Julian moved.
He charged Cole.
Tackled him into the metal table.
The gun clattered away.
They fought.
Punches.
Kicks.
Cole was better.
Trained.
He hit Julian in the ribs.
Once.
Twice.
Julian grunted.
But he didn’t let go.
He bit Cole’s ear.
Hard.
Cole howled.
Elara pushed herself up.
Her head was throbbing.
She saw the knife on the floor where Julian had dropped it.
She grabbed it.
Ran at Cole.
“Hey!” she shouted.
Cole turned.
Elara didn’t stab him.
She slammed the hilt of the knife into his temple.
As hard as she could.
Cole’s eyes rolled back.
He collapsed.
Out cold.
Julian lay on the floor, gasping for air.
Elara ran to him.
“Are you okay?” she said, helping him sit up.
“Ribs hurt,” he wheezed. “But I’m alive. You?”
“Head hurts. But I’m good.”
Sirens wailed outside.
Blue and red lights flashed through the windows.
Jesse’s voice boomed over a megaphone.
“POLICE! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!”
Elara looked at the laptop in her hand.
The upload was stopped.
The data was safe.
Cole was down.
They’d won.
Or so she thought.
Because as the cops burst through the door, Elara’s phone buzzed.
A text from an unknown number.
It was a photo.
Of Lila.
Tied to a chair in a dark room.
A gun to her head.
May you like
The text said:
You took my men. Now I take your friend. Bring the laptop to the old Bennett lab at dawn. Come alone. Or she dies.
