Chapter 11 - The Price of Priya’s Life
Richard contacted Margaret at noon.
He demanded access codes to the company’s emergency reserve account.
Twenty million dollars.
In exchange, he promised to release Priya.
Margaret insisted on proof of life.
A video arrived five minutes later.
Priya sat tied to a metal chair inside what appeared to be an empty warehouse. A bruise marked her temple, but she was awake.
Richard stood behind the camera.
“Tell her.”
Priya looked directly into the lens.
“Do not give him anything.”
The video ended.
Federal agents traced the upload through multiple servers and found no location.
Margaret paced inside the command center.
“He knows I can’t move that amount alone.”
“He may believe you still control the full reserve,” Bell said.
“I do, with board authorization.”
“Then we use the transfer to draw him out.”
Sarah shook her head.
“He’s expecting that.”
“He’s also desperate,” Bell replied.
Eli studied the video frame by frame.
He focused on sounds rather than images.
A low horn.
Metal clanging.
Water.
“The warehouse is near a train line and a harbor,” he said.
Bell listed possible locations.
Baltimore.
Alexandria.
Norfolk.
Eli listened again.
“The horn has two long sounds and one short.”
“What does that mean?” Margaret asked.
“A drawbridge signal.”
Only two industrial districts fit.
Agents searched both.
The first was empty.
At the second, they found Priya’s scarf beside a loading dock but no one inside.
Richard had moved her again.
He called at four.
“You brought police.”
“You expected me to.”
“I expected you to choose.”
“I choose Priya.”
“Then transfer the money.”
“I need time.”
“You have one hour.”
Margaret heard a train announcement faintly behind him.
Eli, listening through headphones, wrote down three words.
Southbound. Platform nine.
Union Station.
Richard had finally gone to the place he named in the first message.
Agents surrounded the station discreetly.
Margaret followed instructions and entered alone with a laptop.
Crowds moved beneath the vaulted ceiling. Travelers pulled luggage across polished floors. Announcements echoed overhead.
She sat on the bench near Platform Nine.
A phone taped beneath it rang.
“Open the laptop,” Richard said.
“Where is Priya?”
“Close.”
“Let me see her.”
“Transfer first.”
Margaret entered the reserve-account screen.
A false transaction window created by federal cyber specialists appeared.
She typed the number.
Twenty million.
“Now the authorization code,” Richard said.
“I need Priya.”
A woman in a gray coat walked past the bench.
Margaret recognized Anna Lake’s assistant from Rosebridge photographs.
Agents moved to intercept her.
She dropped a bag and ran.
Inside the bag was a phone streaming live video of Priya.
Richard had sent a courier, not himself.
The video background showed tiled walls and a row of metal lockers.
Eli viewed the feed remotely.
He recognized the location.
“The old employee corridor under the station.”
Union Station had service tunnels once connected to mail platforms and storage rooms.
Agents descended.
Margaret remained on the phone.
Richard’s breathing changed.
“You think Eli can solve everything?”
“He understands you better than you understand him.”
“I made him strong.”
“You nearly broke him.”
“There is no difference.”
“There is.”
Richard’s voice hardened.
“Complete the transfer.”
“No.”
A gunshot sounded through the phone.
Margaret stood.
“Richard!”
Priya screamed in the background.
The line remained open.
Then came the sound of footsteps running.
Agents reached the service corridor and found Priya tied inside a maintenance room.
The bullet had struck the wall beside her head.
Richard was gone.
He had escaped through a utility passage leading to a parking structure.
Security cameras captured him entering a delivery van.
Police pursued the vehicle across Washington.
The chase ended near the Potomac when the van crashed through a barrier and rolled down an embankment.
Officers found it empty.
Richard had jumped out before the crash.
His coat and phone were inside.
At the hospital, Priya told Margaret what happened.
Richard had kidnapped her because he believed she knew where the original corporate ownership certificates were stored.
“He kept saying the company was supposed to be his,” Priya whispered.
“He never built any of it.”
“He believes surviving near power is the same as creating it.”
Priya also revealed that Richard had contacted someone inside the board after Edward Lyle’s arrest.
A second collaborator.
Someone still working at Reeves Strategic Solutions.
They had provided building access and security schedules.
Before Priya could identify possible suspects, every computer at company headquarters shut down.
A message appeared on the screens.
FINAL TRANSITION INITIATED.
Files began deleting across the network.
Client accounts locked.
Banking systems froze.
Richard had activated malware planted months earlier.
May you like
Margaret had saved Eli.
Now Richard intended to destroy everything else.
