Chapter 5 - THE COBWEB OF CODES
The storm outside intensified, turning the sleet into a heavy, blinding snow that began to blanket the city of Bellweather.
Inside the executive suite of Hale Meridian, Adrian Mercer stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows, watching the snow accumulate on the streets below. He was a handsome man in his late forties, his hair perfectly coiffed, his tailored suit immaculate. He held a crystal glass of scotch, but his fingers were tight against the glass.
His phone buzzed on the mahogany desk. He picked it up.
"Speak," Adrian said.
"We have a problem, sir," the voice of the hospital guard said, sounding panicked. "Victor Hale was here. He discovered the woman. He had her transferred, and we can't find where they took her. Her children are gone from the pediatric ward too."
Adrian’s grip on the glass tightened until his knuckles turned white. "How did he find them?"
"I don't know, sir. He had Sophia Romano with him, and his lawyer, Naomi Wells. They had legal documents. We couldn't stop them without causing a scene."
"Stupid fools," Adrian hissed. "You were paid to keep her quiet and invisible. If Victor finds out about the database—"
"I don't think he has the files yet," the guard interrupted. "But he’s looking. His security team is active."
"Find them," Adrian ordered. "Check his estate, check Romano’s restaurant, check every clinic owned by the Hale network. If they find the files Clara took, we are ruined. Do you understand me? Ruined."
He slammed the phone down, his breathing ragged.
Just then, his computer screen blinked. An alert popped up on his private terminal.
ALERT: UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO WAREHOUSE SECTOR 4.
Adrian frowned, leaning over the keyboard. Sector 4 was the primary staging area for the foundation's shipping network—the place where the physical manifests and the contraband were stored before transit.
A live camera feed showed a single figure walking through the dimly lit warehouse, illuminated only by the emergency lights.
It was Victor.
He was holding a tablet, connecting it to the main server terminal in the supervisor's office.
Adrian felt a cold sweat break out on his neck. Victor was bypassing the secondary firewalls. He was downloading the raw transit logs—the ones that linked the deferred-brake authorizations directly to Adrian’s private digital signature.
Adrian picked up his phone again and dialed a speed-dial number. "Marcus? I need your team at the Sector 4 warehouse. Now. Victor Hale is there alone. He’s trying to take the servers."
"And what do you want us to do with him, boss?" a gravelly voice replied.
May you like
Adrian stared at the camera feed, watching Victor’s calm, determined face. The man he had betrayed, the man whose life he had destroyed, was finally standing in his way.
"Make it look like another tragic accident," Adrian said, his voice cold and empty. "A warehouse fire. With the storm outside, the fire department won't make it in time anyway. Burn it all."
