Chapter 10
Marcus stared at the tablet, the color draining from his face. "What is this? What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything," Clara said, a slow, predatory smile finally touching her lips. "David did. Did you really think my husband was stupid enough to put the master keys in a child's toy?"
"Where are they?" Marcus screamed, slamming his fist onto the table.
"They were in the Pentagon servers all along, Marcus," Clara said smoothly. "The drive in the rabbit? That was a highly aggressive logic bomb. The moment you plugged it into an administrative device, it activated."
Marcus frantically tapped the tablet. "What is it doing?"
"It’s broadcasting," Elias explained, a dark grin spreading across his face. "It bypassed your local jammers. It’s currently sending a massive, unencrypted data packet directly to the Department of Defense cyber-command, the FBI, and the SEC."
"It's broadcasting your offshore accounts, your communications with foreign buyers, and the audio recording of you confessing to my husband's murder just two minutes ago," Clara finished.
Marcus looked up, sheer terror in his eyes. He lunged for his guards' weapons, but Elias was faster, raising his pistol and putting a bullet directly into the mahogany table, an inch from Marcus's hand.
"Don't move," Elias barked.
"You ruined everything!" Marcus yelled, his composure completely shattered. "You've destroyed the company!"
"I purged an infection," Clara said, picking Lily up and holding her close. The little girl buried her face in Clara’s neck, exhausted but safe. "The military police are already breaching the lobby, Marcus. They aren't going to let your private security hold them off."
The heavy steel doors of the vault suddenly thumped violently. A loud, mechanical whine indicated that someone was cutting through the locks from the outside.
Marcus backed away from the table, his eyes darting frantically around the sealed room. He realized there was no escape. He looked at Clara, his breathing ragged.
"You think you've won, Clara?" Marcus whispered, his voice trembling with a toxic mix of fear and spite. "You think stopping me stops the buyers? They already paid the advance. They don't want their money back. They want the tech. If they don't get it... they will come for you. They will come for her."
He pointed a trembling finger at Lily.
May you like
Clara felt a chill run down her spine, but she did not break his gaze. She raised her chin, her military bearing perfect, unyielding.
"Let them come," Clara said, as the sparks from the cutting torch began to break through the vault door, illuminating the darkness with the brilliant, violent light of a new war.
