Chapter 7 - THE BOARDROOM HOSTAGE
Arthur fired toward the ceiling.
Plaster fell across the conference table.
The directors screamed.
Security guards outside the room tried to enter.
Arthur locked the doors.
“Everyone sit down.”
Elena stood near the rear exit.
Aaron stepped between her and the weapon.
Arthur pointed at him.
“Move away from her.”
“You will not leave this building,” Aaron said.
“I do not need to.”
Arthur held up a small device.
A red button blinked beneath his thumb.
“Victoria placed explosives inside the library vault.”
Elena’s stomach tightened.
“If the vault opens without her code, the entire western wing collapses.”
Peter shook his head.
“She told me the device was an alarm.”
Arthur laughed.
“She tells servants whatever keeps them useful.”
Peter’s wife gripped the handles of his wheelchair.
Arthur looked toward Elena.
“Give me Jonathan’s letter.”
“No.”
“Then everyone in this room dies.”
Victoria remained on the screen.
Her voice was sharp.
“Arthur, do not damage the documents.”
He glanced toward her.
That distraction lasted less than a second.
Aaron moved.
He struck Arthur’s wrist.
The gun fired into the table.
Directors fell beneath their chairs.
Elena grabbed the device.
Arthur slammed Aaron against the wall.
Peter rolled his wheelchair forward and drove the metal footrest into Arthur’s knee.
Arthur collapsed.
Security broke through the doors.
They restrained him.
The red button continued blinking.
Aaron took the device from Elena.
“It may be a remote trigger.”
He placed it inside a signal-blocking container.
Bomb technicians searched Ashcroft Manor.
They found charges beneath the library stairs.
The explosives were real.
They also found a timer.
It had already started.
Twenty-seven minutes remained.
The western wing was evacuated.
Elena refused to leave the library.
“The evidence inside the vault can convict her.”
“It can also kill you,” Aaron said.
“Jonathan died protecting it.”
“That does not require you to join him.”
Peter gave them instructions from the courtyard.
The brass key opened the first lock.
Jonathan’s letter activated the second.
A final voice code was required.
Elena stood before the steel door.
A microphone lit beside the keypad.
She remembered the last words Jonathan spoke clearly before losing consciousness.
Do not let her erase you.
Elena repeated them.
The lock opened.
The steel door moved inward.
Aaron checked the explosive timer.
Eighteen minutes.
The vault contained no cash.
No jewels.
No paintings.
Only files.
Hundreds of them.
Jonathan had documented every illegal acquisition made by the Langley family.
He had recorded meetings with Victoria.
He had preserved original Mercer Textiles patents.
On the center shelf sat a laptop connected to an encrypted transmitter.
Elena opened it.
A video message appeared.
Jonathan sat behind his desk.
“If Elena has reached this room, then Victoria has already tried to destroy her.”
Elena’s eyes filled with tears.
Jonathan continued.
“The evidence will upload automatically when the vault opens.”
“Do not attempt to carry everything out.”
“Leave.”
A progress bar appeared.
UPLOAD: 12%.
The bomb timer showed fourteen minutes.
Aaron grabbed Elena’s arm.
“We have to go.”
“No.”
“If we close the vault, will the upload stop?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’m staying.”
Jonathan’s recorded voice continued.
“Elena, if you are watching this, you are probably refusing to leave.”
Despite everything, she almost smiled.
“You once told me courage means knowing which losses cannot be replaced.”
“The records can be copied.”
“You cannot.”
The upload reached twenty percent.
Aaron looked at the timer.
Ten minutes.
Smoke began entering through the stairway.
May you like
Someone had started a fire above them.
The vault door started closing.
