Chapter 6
The flame flickered in Victor Hale’s hand.
Emma could hear Lily breathing behind her.
The black SUV approaching from the rear slowed.
They were trapped between Victor and his men.
Daniel reached for the van door.
Emma locked it.
He stared at her.
“Open it.”
“No.”
“He’s destroying the evidence.”
“And walking toward him fixes that how?”
“He doesn’t know Lily has the encryption key.”
“That means he doesn’t know the server is useless without it.”
Daniel stopped.
Victor stood in the road, watching them.
The lighter burned inches above gasoline-soaked metal.
Brooks whispered, “He wants Daniel outside.”
Emma nodded.
“He could have burned it before we arrived.”
Daniel stared at Victor.
“He’s bluffing.”
“Maybe.”
Victor called out.
“Daniel!”
His voice carried through the windshield.
“Come get it.”
Daniel rolled down the window slightly.
Victor smiled.
“Three years, and this little box is all you have to show for it.”
Daniel shouted, “You’re surrounded by witnesses.”
Victor looked around the empty road.
“Where?”
“The police are coming.”
“Are they?”
Daniel said nothing.
Victor laughed.
“You still haven’t learned.”
Brooks tried his phone again.
No signal.
Victor must have brought a mobile jammer.
Emma checked the rearview mirror.
The SUV stopped thirty feet behind them.
Two men stepped out.
They were armed.
Victor called again.
“Get out of the van and I’ll give you the server.”
Emma muttered, “Obviously a lie.”
Daniel answered, “What do you want?”
Victor glanced toward the back seat.
“Lily.”
Daniel’s entire body tightened.
“No.”
“Then the evidence burns.”
“Burn it.”
Victor hesitated.
So did everyone else.
Emma turned toward Daniel.
He looked calm now.
Dangerously calm.
“The evidence burns,” he repeated. “Lily stays with me.”
Victor lowered the lighter slightly.
There.
Emma saw it.
Victor needed more than the server.
“What’s on it that he needs?” she whispered.
Daniel frowned.
“He thinks I have records of his financial network.”
“Maybe you have something he wants to recover, not destroy.”
Brooks nodded.
“Account numbers. Access keys.”
Daniel’s eyes sharpened.
“The Mercer ledger.”
Emma looked at him.
“What?”
“A list of every offshore account Victor uses.”
“You have it?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“I copied thousands of documents.”
Victor shouted.
“Last chance!”
Daniel leaned out the window.
“You need the Mercer ledger.”
Victor’s expression changed.
Barely.
But enough.
Daniel smiled.
“I wondered why you hadn’t burned it.”
Emma felt the balance shift.
Victor lowered the lighter.
The SUV guards exchanged looks.
Daniel continued.
“You destroy that server, you destroy your access to hundreds of millions.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“Give me the encryption key.”
Daniel smiled.
“So you finally admit you need it.”
Victor’s eyes moved toward Lily.
Emma saw the thought immediately.
He knew the key might be with her.
She turned.
“Lily, hide it.”
The girl tucked the tiny card inside her sock.
Victor extinguished the lighter.
Then he raised a pistol.
“Get out.”
Daniel remained seated.
Victor aimed at the windshield.
“I won’t ask again.”
Emma gripped the steering wheel.
Brooks whispered, “On my count.”
“What?”
“Reverse.”
“The SUV is behind us.”
“I know.”
“That seems like a problem.”
“Three.”
“Brooks—”
“Two.”
The guards behind them approached.
“One.”
Emma slammed the van into reverse.
The catering van shot backward.
The guards jumped aside.
Emma rammed the SUV.
Metal screamed.
Lily shrieked.
Daniel held her.
“Again!”
Emma drove forward five feet.
Then reversed again.
The SUV’s front bumper collapsed.
One guard fired.
The bullet shattered a side window.
Emma ducked.
Brooks returned fire through the broken glass.
Victor ran toward his sedan.
Emma shifted into drive.
Daniel shouted, “Get him!”
The van accelerated.
Victor barely reached his car before Emma struck the rear quarter panel.
His sedan spun.
The gasoline-soaked server slid across the pavement.
Daniel opened the side door while the van was still moving.
Emma screamed, “What are you doing?”
He jumped.
He hit the road hard.
Lily screamed.
“Daddy!”
Daniel rolled, grabbed the server, and struggled to his feet.
Victor emerged from the sedan.
Gun raised.
Brooks fired first.
Victor ducked behind the car.
Emma braked.
Daniel limped toward them carrying the server.
Brooks opened the door.
“Move!”
Daniel climbed in.
Emma accelerated.
They shot past the damaged SUV.
A bullet hit the rear door.
Then another.
Finally the road opened ahead.
Brooks checked his phone.
Signal.
“Call again.”
He dialed 911.
This time the call connected.
Brooks gave their location.
He explained armed pursuit.
Shots fired.
Kidnapping.
Daniel Whitmore alive.
The dispatcher clearly struggled to process all of it.
“Units are being sent.”
Emma looked at the clock.
11:46.
Fourteen minutes.
Daniel held the server.
“Can we trigger the release remotely?”
Brooks asked.
“With the key?”
Daniel shook his head.
“The server needs power and network access.”
Emma pointed ahead.
A gas station glowed in the distance.
“Internet?”
“Maybe.”
They pulled behind the station.
Emma rushed inside with Daniel.
A teenage clerk stared at Daniel’s blood-covered shirt.
“Sir, are you okay?”
“No.”
Daniel put several hundred-dollar bills on the counter.
“I need your router.”
The clerk blinked.
“My what?”
“Internet.”
“You want Wi-Fi?”
“I want the cable.”
Emma almost laughed.
“Just show us where the router is.”
The terrified clerk pointed toward the office.
Daniel connected the server.
Lily handed him the encryption card.
He inserted it.
The screen lit.
PASSWORD REQUIRED.
Daniel typed.
Denied.
His face changed.
“No.”
Emma stared.
“What?”
“Password changed.”
“By who?”
Daniel typed again.
Denied.
Lily watched him.
“Daddy, when I found it earlier, it asked me something.”
“What?”
“Mommy’s song.”
Daniel froze.
“What exactly did it say?”
“It said security challenge. Then it said ‘finish the lyric.’”
Daniel looked at her.
“What lyric?”
Lily began singing softly.
“Bluebird at my window…”
Daniel’s eyes filled with tears.
He completed it.
“…carry my love home.”
He typed CARRYMYLOVEHOME.
The system opened.
UPLOAD STATUS: ARMED.
Timer: 00:12:03.
Emma exhaled.
“It’s still working.”
Daniel checked files.
Then his expression changed.
“What?”
“The upload destination.”
Brooks leaned over.
“Blocked?”
“No.”
Daniel looked stunned.
“It already sent a partial archive.”
“When?”
“11:31.”
Emma remembered the blue room.
“When we opened your folder?”
Daniel nodded.
“Lily must have triggered the failsafe.”
The child looked worried.
“Did I do something bad?”
Daniel pulled her close.
“You may have saved all of us.”
Then Emma heard tires outside.
Everyone went still.
A black SUV pulled into the gas station.
Not police.
Victor’s men.
Brooks pushed shelves against the glass door.
“Back exit!”
The clerk pointed.
Emma grabbed Lily.
Daniel unplugged the server.
Brooks shouted, “Leave it!”
“I need it!”
“Daniel!”
Gunfire cracked.
The front window shattered.
Everyone ducked.
The clerk screamed.
Emma ran toward the back.
Lily followed.
Daniel carried the server.
Brooks fired twice through the broken window, slowing the men.
They burst into an alley.
A delivery truck idled behind the building.
The driver was unloading boxes.
Emma pointed at it.
Daniel said, “No.”
“Yes.”
“Are you planning to steal every commercial vehicle in the county tonight?”
“If necessary.”
The driver saw Daniel’s blood and Brooks’ gun.
He immediately raised his hands.
“Take it.”
Emma paused.
“That was easy.”
They climbed in.
Brooks shouted to the driver.
“Call 911!”
They sped away.
Sirens sounded somewhere in the distance.
Finally.
Lily sat beside Daniel.
“What happens at midnight?”
“The truth comes out.”
“Then Evelyn goes to jail?”
Daniel hesitated.
“If the system works.”
Emma glanced back.
“That wasn’t convincing.”
Daniel checked the server.
“Partial upload may not include everything.”
“What does it include?”
Daniel searched.
Financial transactions.
Security footage.
Medical records.
Audio recordings.
Then one file made him stop.
EVELYN_PRIVATE_07.
He opened it.
Audio played.
Evelyn’s voice.
“I don’t care what Victor wants. Daniel cannot come back.”
Then another voice.
Mr. Dorsey.
Emma’s catering manager.
“What about the girl?”
Lily became still.
Evelyn answered.
“After the trust transfer, Lily becomes a liability.”
Daniel looked sick.
Dorsey asked, “What do you want me to do?”
Evelyn replied.
“Make it look like she ran away.”
Silence filled the truck.
Emma felt rage spread through her body.
Lily stared at her father.
“What does liability mean?”
Daniel immediately shut the audio off.
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
Lily looked at him.
“I’m not stupid.”
Daniel swallowed.
“No. You’re not.”
She had already understood.
Emma knelt in front of her.
“It means Evelyn was planning to hurt you.”
Lily’s eyes filled.
Daniel started to object.
Emma shook her head.
“She deserves the truth.”
Lily whispered, “Because of the money?”
Daniel looked destroyed.
“Yes.”
The child turned away.
“I thought she loved me.”
Daniel reached for her.
Lily pulled back.
That hurt him more than the bullet.
“I thought she loved me too,” he said.
Lily looked at him.
Emma realized he wasn’t only talking about the child.
Daniel had married Evelyn.
Trusted her.
Shared a home with her.
And she had buried him alive socially before trying to steal his daughter’s future.
The truck turned onto a larger road.
Police lights flashed ahead.
Brooks exhaled.
“Finally.”
Two patrol cars blocked the intersection.
Emma slowed.
Officers stepped out.
Guns drawn.
“Hands where we can see them!”
Brooks raised his hands.
“We called you!”
“Exit the vehicle!”
Daniel looked wary.
Emma remembered his recording.
Hale owns people in the department.
She looked at Daniel.
He had the same thought.
One officer approached.
“Daniel Whitmore?”
Daniel slowly stepped out.
“Yes.”
The officer stared at him as if seeing a ghost.
Then he raised his radio.
“We have the suspect.”
Emma frowned.
“Suspect?”
Another officer pulled Daniel’s arms behind his back.
Lily screamed.
“No!”
Daniel winced as the cuff touched his wound.
“What are you doing?”
“You’re under arrest for kidnapping Lily Whitmore.”
Emma jumped out.
“That’s his daughter!”
An officer grabbed her.
“Back up!”
“You have it wrong!”
The first officer looked at Daniel.
“We received a report from Evelyn Whitmore that you abducted the child and murdered two security employees.”
Daniel stared.
“I didn’t kill anyone.”
The officer tightened the cuffs.
Lily ran toward him.
“My daddy didn’t take me!”
A female officer stopped her.
“Sweetheart—”
“He saved me!”
Emma looked around.
No ambulances.
No supervisors.
These officers had arrived suspiciously fast after Victor’s men lost them.
Brooks whispered, “Daniel was right.”
One officer heard him.
“About what?”
Brooks looked at Emma.
She understood.
These weren’t the rescuers.
They were Victor’s next move.
The server sat inside the truck.
Emma glanced toward it.
An officer noticed.
“What’s in the case?”
Daniel said nothing.
The officer walked toward the truck.
Emma’s pulse jumped.
He reached for the server.
Then headlights flooded the intersection.
A dozen vehicles approached.
Not police.
News vans.
Reporters.
Cameras.
Everyone stared.
Daniel’s system had sent more than evidence.
It had sent an emergency message.
News organizations were arriving.
The first reporter jumped out before the van fully stopped.
“Mr. Whitmore!”
Cameras swung toward Daniel.
The supposedly dead billionaire stood in the middle of the road.
Alive.
Bleeding.
Handcuffed.
Lily screamed for him.
The officer holding Daniel suddenly looked terrified.
Another reporter shouted:
“Mr. Whitmore, is it true your wife held you captive for three years?”
Daniel slowly turned toward the cameras.
And smiled.
May you like
Victor’s plan had just lost the one thing it depended on.
Darkness.
