Chapter 8 - Corporate Shadows
The tenth-floor corporate offices were a ghost town of empty cubicles, sleek glass partitions, and polished mahogany desks bathed in the pale blue glow of computer monitors left in sleep mode. Marcus hurried past the rows of workstations, his footsteps muffled by the thick gray carpeting. He gently laid Cali down on a plush velvet sofa in the corner of a private executive conference room, out of sight from the main corridor.
"Stay here, Cali. I'm going to find a phone," Marcus whispered, pressing a kiss to her clammy forehead before turning away.
His phone was dead—shattered during his frantic dash through the penthouse. He needed to reach the master terminal in the IT server room down the hall to reroute the building's communication arrays and bypass David's lockdown.
As he stepped out of the conference room into the dimly lit hallway, the ambient hum of the server racks grew louder, a low, constant drone that vibrated through the floorboards. The server room door stood slightly ajar, a sliver of harsh blue light spilling out onto the carpet.
Marcus approached cautiously, keeping his steps light and silent. He gripped a heavy glass water pitcher he had grabbed from the conference room table, raising it like a club. He kicked the server room door open with his foot and stepped inside, ready to strike.
The room was completely empty. Row upon row of black server racks hummed quietly, their status lights blinking in steady, rhythmic green sequences. But in the center of the room, sitting atop the main diagnostic console, was an active laptop screen displaying a live, high-definition webcam feed of the conference room where Cali lay unconscious.
Marcus froze. The camera angle wasn't coming from the room's permanent security system. It was a mobile feed—a hidden lens pointed directly at the sofa.
Suddenly, the built-in speaker on the laptop clicked on, emitting a burst of static before Julianne’s voice came through, high-pitched and trembling with terror.
"Marcus! Don't look at the screen! He's not alone!"
May you like
Before Marcus could process the warning, the heavy steel door of the server room slammed shut behind him with an automated crash, and the magnetic locks engaged with a definitive, inescapable click.
---
