Chapter 14
Arthur lowered his weapon an inch, his eyes locking onto Senator Hayes with absolute, unyielding contempt. “You really think you’re running this operation, Thomas? You’re just a puppet holding a detonator for men who discarded you the moment you became a liability.”
Hayes’s finger hovered directly over the enter key of the glowing terminal. His hand trembled violently, sweat dripping off his chin onto the plastic keyboard. “I have nothing left to lose, Arthur! My son is expelled, my accounts are frozen, and my political career is finished. If I go down, I’m taking you all with me.”
Elena stepped out from behind her father, her white cane extended, its rubber tip tapping lightly against the glass threshold of the greenhouse door. She did not look at Hayes; instead, her single uncovered eye fixed upon the small red status light blinking on the side of the satellite uplink box.
“You won’t press the key, Senator,” Elena said, her voice cutting through the humid air of the greenhouse with absolute clarity.
Hayes laughed hysterically, pressing his finger harder toward the plastic key. “Try me, blind girl. Watch me end your entire legacy in one second.”
“If you execute the wipe command,” Elena continued, stepping closer with unhurried grace, “the proxy server currently mirroring your personal offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands will automatically release your hidden transaction logs to the federal attorney general.”
Hayes froze. His finger stopped a millimeter from the key. “What did you say?”
“My father isn’t the only one who keeps records,” Elena said, stopping just three paces from the console. She reached into her blazer pocket and pulled out a small, metallic override key—the exact twin of the one Sterling had tried to trade for earlier. “You thought Director Sterling was working for you. But he was actually managing your liquidation on behalf of my uncle.”
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Sterling suddenly burst through the side service door of the greenhouse, his right leg heavily bandaged and limping badly, holding a backup pistol in his left hand. “Don’t listen to her, Hayes! She’s bluffing!”
Before Sterling could raise his weapon, Arthur pivoted and fired, the bullet shattering the glass housing of the overhead sprinkler system. Torrents of water cascaded down instantly, drenching the entire greenhouse in a blinding sheet of artificial rain.
