Chapter 8 - The Brother Victor Left BehindThe explosion destroyed three floors but killed no employees.
At least, Richard believed he did.
Detective Brooks had replaced the actual Meridian token with a near-perfect replica before Daniel entered the garage.
The fake would work long enough to begin authentication.
Then it would lock the system.
Richard examined it.
“Your father trusted you more than he trusted anyone.”
“He trusted you too.”
Richard’s smile disappeared.
“Thomas was sentimental.”
“He was right about you.”
Richard stepped into the elevator.
“Come.”
Daniel entered.
One armed man stood behind him.
The other remained in the garage.
As the elevator climbed, Daniel watched the floor numbers.
He thought of Evelyn’s signal.
Bomb.
Where?
How large?
Was it already armed?
No police radio could reach him.
Brooks had fitted a transmitter into his belt, but he had no way of knowing whether it worked through the reinforced elevator shaft.
Richard looked at Daniel’s reflection.
“You hate me.”
“Should I thank you?”
“I made your family wealthy.”
“My father made us wealthy.”
“Your father made inventions. I made them valuable.”
“You murdered him.”
Richard stared forward.
“He was going to destroy everything.”
“By exposing you?”
“By handing technology to bureaucrats who had no idea what they possessed.”
“You sold it.”
“I moved it where it could be used.”
“For money.”
“For influence.”
The elevator opened.
The thirty-eighth floor had been evacuated.
Computer screens glowed across empty workstations.
The glass-walled Meridian security chamber stood at the far end.
Evelyn was inside.
Daniel ran toward her.
An armed man stepped into his path.
Richard raised one hand.
“Let him.”
Daniel entered the chamber.
“Mom.”
Evelyn’s eyes filled with tears.
“Daniel.”
He knelt and checked her restraints.
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m okay.”
“Where’s the bomb?”
Her eyes widened.
Richard entered.
“How touching.”
Daniel stood.
“You’re going to blow up the building.”
Richard laughed.
“Evelyn has always had a flair for drama.”
She glared at him.
“I saw the detonator.”
“No, you saw equipment you didn’t understand.”
Daniel studied Richard’s face.
“You’re lying.”
Richard sighed.
“Authenticate Meridian.”
Daniel walked to the console.
Evelyn had already completed retinal verification.
The system requested family-key authorization.
Daniel inserted the fake token.
PROCESSING.
Richard watched.
Daniel counted silently.
Five seconds.
Ten.
Fifteen.
Then—
AUTHENTICATION FAILED.
Richard’s face changed.
“What did you do?”
Daniel stepped back.
“Nothing.”
Richard seized the token.
Tried again.
SECURITY LOCKDOWN INITIATED.
Red lights flashed.
Steel shutters began lowering over the windows.
Richard grabbed Daniel by the throat.
“You gave me a fake.”
Daniel shoved him away.
An alarm sounded.
Then gunfire echoed outside.
Police.
Brooks had made it in.
Richard’s men ran toward the corridor.
Daniel rushed to Evelyn and began freeing her wrists.
“Can you walk?”
“I think so.”
The glass doors suddenly locked.
Richard stood outside the chamber.
He held a small black device.
A detonator.
Evelyn whispered, “That’s it.”
Richard pressed a button.
A digital timer appeared on the wall.
04:59.
Daniel stared.
Richard smiled through the glass.
“You should have brought the real key.”
Then he ran.
Daniel slammed against the door.
“Richard!”
Evelyn pointed beneath the console.
“Daniel.”
A metal case.
Wires.
Explosive charges.
The bomb was inside the chamber.
Four minutes, forty-seven seconds.
Daniel looked around.
The security room was designed to survive external attack.
Its glass was ballistic.
Its door automatically sealed during lockdown.
A fortress.
Now a tomb.
“Mom, get down.”
Daniel grabbed a chair and slammed it into the glass.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
Outside, Detective Brooks appeared.
Her eyes widened when she saw the timer.
Daniel shouted through the glass.
“BOMB!”
She tried the control panel.
LOCKDOWN.
Four minutes.
Evelyn sank into the chair.
“Daniel.”
“No.”
He searched the walls.
“Daniel, listen.”
“No.”
“If you can get out—”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You have Rachel. Lily.”
“And I have you.”
Three minutes thirty.
Brooks radioed someone.
Technicians arrived.
They worked on the panel.
Daniel looked at the bomb.
His father had designed this chamber.
Thomas trusted machines less than people.
There would be a manual override.
Daniel remembered visiting the building as a teenager.
His father tapping the wall and joking:
“If computers ever get smarter than us, there’s always a stupid mechanical lever.”
Daniel scanned the room.
Mechanical.
Not digital.
Behind a decorative panel.
He tore it off.
Pipes.
Wires.
A red handle.
“Mom!”
He pulled.
Nothing.
“Help me.”
Evelyn grabbed it.
Together they pulled.
The emergency mechanism groaned.
The door opened two inches.
Brooks wedged a crowbar inside.
Two officers joined.
The opening widened.
Two minutes.
Evelyn slipped through first.
Daniel followed.
“Run!”
They made it into the stairwell.
Thirty-eight floors.
Impossible.
Brooks pointed upward.
“Roof!”
Helicopter access.
They ran.
Evelyn stumbled.
Daniel carried her.
Thirty-nine.
Forty.
Roof door.
One minute.
A police helicopter hovered overhead.
Wind tore across the roof.
Brooks screamed instructions Daniel couldn’t hear.
A rescue officer grabbed Evelyn.
Daniel climbed after her.
Thirty seconds.
Richard appeared at the roof doorway.
Gun in hand.
Noah came behind him.
Daniel’s heart stopped.
“Noah!”
Noah slammed Richard into the wall.
The gun fired.
Richard struck Noah across the face.
They grappled near the roof edge.
Daniel jumped down from the helicopter platform.
“Daniel, no!” Brooks screamed.
Ten seconds.
Daniel tackled Richard.
Noah kicked the gun away.
Five.
Four.
Three.
The helicopter lifted.
Daniel dragged Noah toward it.
Richard lunged after them.
Two.
One.
The explosion tore through the thirty-eighth floor.
Glass erupted from the tower.
The shockwave punched upward.
Daniel lost his footing.
His hand slipped from the helicopter rail.
For one terrifying second, he was hanging over forty stories of empty air.
Then Noah grabbed his wrist.
“I’ve got you!”
Daniel looked up.
His brother’s face was bloody.
His arms were shaking.
Richard crawled toward them across the roof.
Then a second explosion rocked the building.
Richard lost his balance.
He disappeared from view.
Daniel screamed.
Noah held on.
A rescue officer pulled Daniel into the helicopter.
As they rose above the burning tower, Daniel looked down.
Police flooded the roof.
But Richard Vale was nowhere to be seen.
And Detective Brooks received a radio message that made her expression turn grim.
No body had been found.
May you like
Richard had escaped.
Again.
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