Chapter 9
The cool, sterile air of the server room suddenly felt heavy and suffocating. Victoria Sterling stood framed in the doorway, her sharp blue pantsuit immaculate, her expression a mask of chilling, calculated composure. She didn't look surprised; instead, a cold, predatory smile touched the corners of her perfectly painted lips as she gazed across the glowing server racks at the small, soot-smudged girl and the wide-eyed street vendor.
"Well, well," Victoria said, her voice cutting cleanly through the hum of the cooling fans. "I wondered which little rat had been chewing through my wiring. But I must admit, I never expected the accountant's brat to have the stomach to crawl up through the drainage pipes."
The two armed guards immediately unholstered their sidearms, raising the black barrels with lethal precision, centering their sights directly on the vendor's chest.
"Drop whatever you're holding right now, or we open fire," the lead guard barked, his voice echoing menacingly off the glass walls.
The vendor froze, his hands instinctively flying into the air, the heavy metal wrench clattering uselessly against the floor. "Hey, listen, lady—I'm just a guy who sells hotdogs. I don't want any trouble. Take whatever she downloaded and let us walk out of here."
"Shut up," the girl whispered fiercely, not taking her eyes off the glowing terminal screen. The progress bar for the financial ledger download crept agonizingly forward: 48%... 52%...
"You always were remarkably stubborn, just like your father," Victoria said, taking a slow, deliberate step forward into the room, her dark heels clicking rhythmically against the pristine floor. "He thought he could save the world with a ledger book too. Look where it got him. Locked away in a maximum-security cell while his legacy was erased piece by piece."
"He didn't erase anything," the girl snapped, her voice trembling with barely contained rage. "The truth is downloading right now. The moment this hits the federal database, your entire empire crumbles."
Victoria let out a short, cold laugh. She gestured casually to the lead guard. "Cut the power to the mainframe."
The guard immediately stepped toward a master circuit breaker panel mounted beside the glass partition, his hand reaching out to throw the heavy master switch that would instantly fry the servers and wipe the download clean.
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"Do it!" Victoria commanded.
Without thinking, the vendor lunged forward with explosive speed, throwing his entire body against the guard's back just as the man's hand hit the switch.
