Chapter 5
The heavy oak double doors of the senior partner’s office stood slightly ajar, a thin sliver of warm light spilling out onto the patterned hallway carpet. Daniel motioned for Rachel and Toby to wait behind the marble pillar while he crept forward, his sneakers making no sound on the thick wool. He peered inside the gap, his body tensing instantly.
Rachel watched from afar, her heart pounding against her ribs like a trapped bird. She kept one hand firmly on Toby’s shoulder, guiding the boy down to a crouch behind the pillar base. Every second ticked past like lead.
Daniel stepped back out into the hallway, his face pale and drained of color. He motioned frantically for them to join him. When Rachel reached the doorway, she saw why he looked so shaken.
The office was meticulously neat, save for the large mahogany desk where Marcus Vance, the managing director of the firm, sat slumped sideways in a high-backed leather chair. A half-empty glass of amber liquor sat on the coaster before him. Vance’s head was tilted at an unnatural angle, his eyes staring blankly at the ornate ceiling molding. There was no blood, no signs of a struggle, but the gray pallor of his skin spoke volumes.
“Is he... is he asleep?” Toby whispered, peering around Rachel’s leg with innocent curiosity.
“Don’t look, Toby. Keep your eyes on me,” Rachel said quickly, stepping forward to block the boy’s view while her own gaze remained locked on the dead man. She looked at Daniel with horror. “Did they...?”
“Poisoned,” Daniel said grimly, walking over to the desk and ignoring the corpse with practiced professional coldness. “Vance tried to cut a deal with the federal prosecutor yesterday. The board found out before the meeting could happen. They didn’t just want our files; they were cleaning house from the top down.”
Daniel pressed a hidden biometric panel beneath the mahogany desk edge. With a low, pneumatic hum, a section of the wood-paneled wall slid back to reveal a heavy steel safe inset into the concrete pillar behind it.
“The master key must be inside the digital core,” Daniel muttered, punching a sequence of numbers into the safe’s numeric keypad based on Vance’s known birth date and anniversary dates.
The keypad beeped sharply: Error.
“Damn it,” Daniel cursed under his breath, wiping sweat from his forehead. “They’ve already locked out the master override.”
“Try the physical backup,” Rachel suggested, stepping closer to the desk and noticing a heavy leather-bound ledger resting beneath Vance’s lifeless hand. She reached out, her fingers trembling, and carefully slid the ledger away from the dead man’s grip. Between its pages sat a small, metallic flash drive etched with an agency serial number.
“You found it,” Daniel breathed, a look of profound relief washing over his tense features. He grabbed the drive from her hand and rushed over to a secure terminal built into the side of the safe.
May you like
Before he could plug it in, a sharp, electronic chime echoed from the executive foyer. Down the long hallway, the amber safety lights suddenly flickered and turned a harsh, clinical white. The security system had just rebooted, and it had registered their presence on the twelfth floor.
***
