Chapter 10 - The Final Option
The final option was hidden inside my life-insurance policy.
Vanessa had increased the payout from five million to thirty million dollars three months after I left for Saudi Arabia.
She forged my electronic approval.
Charles’s company was listed as financial administrator for the benefit.
If I died, Vanessa received the money.
Charles controlled its investment.
The refinery cyberattack had two purposes.
Damage the company.
And create a believable industrial accident involving me.
My return home early disrupted the schedule.
Charles now needed a different method.
Dr. Reed had access to Mom’s hospital floor.
He also served as a consultant at the same hospital.
Security footage showed him entering through a staff garage.
Detective Brooks ordered an immediate lockdown.
I ran toward Mom’s room.
Elena was already there.
Reed stood beside the IV pump holding a syringe.
Elena had pulled the line from Mom’s arm.
Reed turned toward her.
“You do not understand what you are interfering with.”
Elena stepped between him and the bed.
“I understand enough.”
He raised the syringe.
I entered.
Reed froze.
Security officers arrived behind me.
The syringe contained potassium chloride.
A dose capable of stopping Mom’s heart.
Reed had planned to call it a stroke complication.
He carried a second syringe.
It contained a sedative strong enough to incapacitate me.
Charles expected me to arrive after Mom died.
Reed would inject me.
A later car crash would finish the plan.
The entire sequence had been timed.
Police arrested Reed.
He immediately asked for a lawyer.
Then he saw the North Star server photographs.
He realized Charles had recorded him too.
Reed offered cooperation.
Charles had a final escape route.
A private airstrip outside the city.
A jet waited under the name of a South American mining company.
Federal agents surrounded the airstrip.
The plane remained empty.
A fuel worker found a message taped beneath the stairs.
YOU KEEP WATCHING THE EXITS.
I LIVE INSIDE THE SYSTEMS.
Charles had not gone to the airstrip.
May you like
He had entered Ross Energy headquarters using Nathan’s old credentials.
The building’s security grid went dark.
