Chapter 18 - The False Victory
Thomas fired.
Samuel knocked Ethan sideways.
The bullet struck a server cabinet.
Ethan hit the floor.
I grabbed the gun Samuel had given me earlier.
Thomas froze when I raised it.
He smiled.
“You won’t shoot.”
“Probably not.”
“You’re your father’s daughter.”
“That’s exactly why you should be nervous.”
Police sirens sounded outside.
Thomas laughed.
“You called the police?”
“No.”
“Rachel did.”
His smile faded.
“State police.”
“Federal investigators.”
“And three reporters who received encrypted copies of the archive index ten minutes ago.”
Thomas’s face changed.
For the first time, I saw fear.
Not panic.
Calculation collapsing.
He stepped backward.
“This can still be contained.”
“No.”
“You don’t know the people involved.”
“No.”
“But now everyone else will.”
Thomas looked toward the servers.
Then he smiled again.
That bothered me.
“You think the upload was the victory.”
My grip tightened.
“What did you do?”
He pulled a small remote from his pocket.
Samuel shouted.
“No!”
Thomas pressed the button.
The servers went black.
Every screen died.
Smoke rose from the rear cabinets.
A destructive charge.
Ethan stared.
“The archive.”
Thomas smiled.
“Gone.”
For three seconds, I believed him.
Three devastating seconds.
Then my phone vibrated.
REMOTE MIRROR COMPLETE.
I laughed.
Thomas’s smile disappeared.
“My father taught me something too.”
“What?”
“Never keep only one copy.”
The archive had mirrored automatically to seven external servers the moment the Whitmore system merged.
Thomas ran.
Samuel tackled him near the stairs.
They crashed into the wall.
Police entered through the basement.
Within minutes, Thomas Whitmore was handcuffed.
Barbara and Olivia were brought downstairs.
Ethan held his sister again.
Barbara looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
I did not answer immediately.
Then I said, “You should be.”
She nodded.
No excuses.
No request for forgiveness.
That was enough for that moment.
Outside, flashing lights covered the lawn.
Rachel came running toward me.
“We did it.”
I wanted to believe her.
Thomas was arrested.
The archive was safe.
The fortune was gone from anyone’s reach.
Olivia was alive.
Barbara was no longer pretending.
Ethan and I were standing together.
It felt like victory.
Then Rachel’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
She looked at me.
“Claire, one of the federal teams opened the first section of the Mercer Ledger.”
“And?”
“There’s a file with your father’s name on it.”
“That makes sense.”
“No.”
Rachel swallowed.
“He isn’t listed as an investigator.”
My heart dropped.
“What is he listed as?”
She turned the screen toward me.
JONATHAN MERCER - FOUNDING PARTICIPANT.
My father had not merely discovered Thomas’s network.
May you like
According to the ledger, he had helped create it.
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