Chapter 5 - The Master Terminal
The fierce LED glare of the penlight burned against Clara’s retinas, forcing her to squeeze her eyes shut as hot tears spilled down her cheeks. The weight of Julian’s presence hung over her like a physical barrier, blocking out any remaining hope of a quick rescue.
"Open your eyes, Clara," Julian commanded, his voice dropping all pretense of corporate warmth. "We don't have time to play games. The auxiliary power will restore the security grid in less than sixty seconds, and I intend to be gone before those cameras start recording again."
Clara kept her eyelids sealed tight, turning her face sideways against the hard marble.
"You'll never get past the biometric firewall," she muttered defiantly. "The master terminal requires both my thumbprint and a dual-authentication voice passphrase that only the ethics committee chair possesses."
"Which is precisely why Marcus is currently visiting the ethics chair at his private residence across town," Julian replied smoothly, the sound of fabric rustling indicating he was crouching down right beside her. "People are remarkably cooperative when their grandchildren's college tuitions are suddenly threatened with immediate administrative revocation."
Clara’s eyes snapped open in sheer disbelief. "You threatened his family? Dr. Sterling is an eighty-year-old man who dedicated his entire life to medical ethics!"
"Dr. Sterling made his choice when he tried to block the expedited pediatric trial rollout," Marcus added coldly from the darkness just beyond the penlight's beam. "Just like you made yours when you stole those physical oil samples and tried to smuggle them out in a medical tray."
Julian reached out, his strong fingers firmly gripping Clara’s right wrist. Despite her sharp intake of breath and whispered protests, he pulled her arm toward him with cold efficiency. Pressing her thumb forcefully against the cold glass sensor of a portable decryption device he had pulled from his suit pocket, the screen flashed a brilliant, pulsing red.
Access Denied. Secondary Verification Required.
Julian cursed, tossing the small device onto the floor in frustration.
"Where is the physical backup key, Clara?" Julian demanded, his grip tightening painfully around her bruised wrist until white showed at his knuckles. "Tell me now, or the next person we visit won't be Dr. Sterling—it will be your younger sister in Chicago."
Clara froze, all the air rushing out of her lungs. Her sister Maya lived alone in a high-rise apartment, completely unaware of the corporate storm Clara had stepped into.
Before Clara could form a response, the heavy emergency generators suddenly whined to life with a deafening roar. The massive crystal chandeliers above the grand atrium flickered once, twice, and then flooded the entire marble hall with blinding, unrelenting white light.
Simultaneously, the heavy double doors at the entrance of the atrium were kicked wide open, and the sharp, unmistakable sound of a police shotgun sliding into battery echoed off the stone walls.
"Drop your weapons! Federal Marshals! Nobody move an inch!" a booming voice commanded from the threshold.
May you like
Julian slowly raised his empty hands, turning his head toward the entrance with a look of absolute, unmitigated shock.
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