Chapter 6 - One Last Night to Survive
Emergency lights came on three seconds later.
Three seconds were enough.
People shouted.
A chair overturned.
Someone dropped a phone.
Samantha moved.
The officer holding her wrist lost his grip when the room went black.
She stepped sideways, not running, not fighting, simply disappearing between two panicked board members.
Alexander understood instantly.
When the lights returned, Samantha was gone.
“So is Mercer!” Nolan Price shouted.
Alexander spun.
Nate’s chair was empty.
The boardroom doors stood open.
Alexander ran.
“Samantha!”
She appeared near the elevators.
“Stairs!”
They reached the emergency stairwell.
Margaret followed.
The officers shouted behind them.
“What now?” Alexander demanded.
“Pier Seventeen.”
“You’re under arrest.”
“I noticed.”
“If we run, it makes you look guilty.”
“If we stay, Nate destroys whatever Michael Rourke left behind.”
Margaret cursed.
Samantha looked impressed.
“I like her.”
“I’m standing right here,” Margaret snapped.
Nolan appeared one flight below.
Alexander stopped.
Samantha tensed.
Nolan raised both hands.
“I’m not with Mercer.”
“Prove it,” Samantha said.
He tossed his phone onto the stairs.
“Victor Dane sent me a message fifteen minutes ago.”
Alexander grabbed the phone.
One photograph.
Victor tied to a chair.
Bruised.
Alive.
Beneath it:
CLEAN UP YOUR MESS OR HE TALKS.
Nolan’s face was hard.
“Nate didn’t trust Victor anymore.”
Alexander looked at Samantha.
“Victor knows everything.”
“Then Pier Seventeen isn’t only about a server,” she said.
They exited through a service level.
Margaret remained behind to call federal investigators and turn over the financial documents.
Nolan drove.
Alexander sat in the rear with Samantha.
For the first time since meeting her, he noticed her hands shaking.
Barely.
But shaking.
“You okay?”
“Adrenaline.”
“You don’t have to pretend with me.”
“I’m not pretending.”
“You’ve been awake nearly three days.”
“That part I might be pretending about.”
He reached across the seat.
His fingers covered hers.
Samantha looked down.
Neither of them moved away.
Alexander’s voice lowered.
“If we get through tonight—”
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Start sentences like that.”
“Why?”
“Because people only do that before something terrible happens.”
A sad smile touched his mouth.
“You really have seen too many movies.”
“I’ve seen too many emergency rooms.”
He squeezed her hand once.
“Then after.”
Samantha looked at him.
“After what?”
“After we survive.”
She should have laughed.
Instead, she nodded.
Pier Seventeen appeared beside the river just before midnight.
Shipping containers formed steel corridors beneath towering cranes.
Most of the terminal was closed.
One warehouse remained lit.
Nolan parked behind an abandoned maintenance building.
“The server room is inside Warehouse B,” Alexander said.
Samantha studied the entrance.
“No guards.”
“That bothers you?”
“Everything bothers me.”
They entered through a side door.
The hallway smelled of dust, river water and machine oil.
Alexander led them downstairs.
Server Room B required a key card.
Nolan’s worked.
Inside, rows of equipment hummed.
A single computer terminal displayed a login screen.
Samantha checked the room.
“No cameras.”
Nolan looked up.
“There should be two.”
Alexander approached the terminal.
A file was already open.
ROURKE_LEDGER_MASTER.
“No password,” he said.
Samantha’s stomach tightened.
“Too easy.”
Alexander clicked.
Hundreds of transactions appeared.
Shell companies.
Wire transfers.
Property acquisitions.
Executive authorization codes.
Nathaniel Mercer’s digital signatures.
Nolan whispered, “That’s enough to bury him.”
Samantha looked toward the door.
“No.”
Alexander frowned.
“No what?”
“Nate knows Michael made a copy. He knows where it is. Why hasn’t he destroyed it?”
A voice answered from behind them.
“Because I needed Alex to open it.”
They turned.
Nathaniel Mercer stood in the doorway.
A gun rested in his hand.
Victor Dane was beside him.
Not tied up anymore.
Nolan went pale.
Victor smiled.
“Sorry, boss.”
Nolan whispered, “The photo?”
“Taken months ago.”
Nate stepped inside.
“You always were predictable, Alex.”
Alexander moved slightly in front of Samantha.
Nate sighed.
“Again with that.”
“You’re finished.”
“Not yet.”
“You confessed in front of the entire board.”
“I admitted to moving capital.”
“You admitted enough.”
“Enough for scandal.”
Nate looked at the screen.
“But not murder.”
Samantha watched Victor.
His gun was pointed at Nolan.
Nate’s was pointed at Alexander.
“Then why bring us here?” she asked.
Nate smiled.
“Because Alexander just entered his biometric authorization.”
Alexander looked at the terminal.
His face changed.
Nate continued.
“The ledger is encrypted. His access unlocked the master archive.”
Samantha understood.
“You never knew what Michael had.”
“Exactly.”
“And now you do.”
“Exactly.”
Nate moved toward the keyboard.
“Move.”
Alexander did not.
Nate raised the gun.
“Alex.”
Samantha touched Alexander’s arm.
He stepped away.
Nate inserted a drive.
Files began copying.
Samantha looked around the room.
Fire suppression system.
Emergency power.
Cable trays.
Industrial battery rack.
One sprinkler head.
One wall-mounted extinguisher.
Victor watched her.
“Don’t try anything.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“You’re the one who ruined everything nine months ago.”
Samantha looked at him.
“You were driving the truck.”
Victor grinned.
“The truck that pushed Alex into the divider.”
Alexander’s eyes turned murderous.
Nate snapped, “Shut up.”
But Victor was enjoying himself.
“He was supposed to bleed out before the ambulance arrived.”
Samantha’s hands turned cold.
Alexander stared at Nate.
“You watched me almost die.”
Nate did not look at him.
“I wasn’t supposed to be at the hospital.”
“But you came.”
“To make sure.”
Samantha’s voice was quiet.
“And I stopped you.”
Nate finally looked at her.
“You delayed everything.”
“What were you going to put in the IV?”
Nate said nothing.
That was enough.
The file transfer reached ninety-one percent.
Samantha shifted her foot.
Victor noticed.
“Stay still.”
Ninety-four.
Samantha looked at Nolan.
Then the extinguisher.
His eyes followed hers.
Ninety-seven.
Nate smiled.
“Goodbye, Alex.”
Nolan moved first.
He slammed into Victor.
The gun fired.
Samantha grabbed the extinguisher.
She pulled the pin and discharged it across the room.
White chemical powder exploded into the air.
Nate shouted.
Alexander lunged.
Another shot.
Server glass shattered.
Sparks erupted.
Samantha swung the extinguisher.
It struck Nate’s wrist.
The gun fell.
Alexander tackled him.
Victor and Nolan crashed through a rack.
Electrical arcs flashed.
Smoke filled the room.
“Fire!” Samantha shouted.
A cable tray ignited.
Nate kicked Alexander away and grabbed the drive.
Samantha moved toward him.
Victor fired again.
The bullet struck metal.
Nolan slammed Victor into the wall.
Alexander grabbed Samantha.
“Out!”
A loud crack came from above.
Part of the ceiling collapsed.
A steel beam struck Alexander and drove him to the floor.
“Samantha!”
She dropped beside him.
The beam pinned his leg.
Nate stood ten feet away.
He had the drive.
He could escape.
The proof.
Four hundred eighty million dollars.
Two murders.
The sabotage.
Everything.
Nate looked at Samantha.
“Choose.”
Smoke thickened.
Flames climbed the server racks.
Behind her, Nolan fought Victor.
In front of her, Nate moved toward the exit.
At her feet, Alexander struggled beneath the beam.
“Samantha,” he gasped. “Go after him.”
She looked at the doorway.
Then at Alexander.
Nate smiled.
He knew.
He had designed the choice perfectly.
Proof or life.
Justice or the man who had spent nine months searching for her.
Samantha dropped to her knees.
“Not a chance.”
She grabbed the beam.
Alexander stared.
“The drive.”
“I don’t care.”
“He gets away.”
“I said I don’t care.”
“You should.”
“I’m a nurse.”
She pulled with everything she had.
“And you’re my patient.”
Nate disappeared through the smoke.
Samantha screamed at Nolan.
“Help me!”
Together they lifted.
Alexander dragged his leg free.
The ceiling groaned.
They ran.
Victor did not follow.
Fire erupted behind them.
They reached the warehouse floor as emergency sirens activated.
Samantha coughed violently.
Alexander leaned on her.
Nolan stumbled behind them.
Twenty yards from the exit, Samantha stopped.
A figure stepped through the smoke.
Nathaniel Mercer.
The drive was in one hand.
May you like
The gun was in the other.
And this time, he was pointing directly at Samantha.
