Chapter 8 - The Hostage
Alejandro stared at the man who had been a second father to him.
David's hands were trembling slightly, completely unused to holding a deadly weapon.
"You sold your soul for money, David," Alejandro said, his voice laced with absolute disgust.
"I did it to survive," David argued defensively, stepping closer to them.
"Richard Sterling crushes anyone who stands in his way, and I am not going down with your sinking ship."
Elena slowly moved her hand toward her empty thigh holster, realizing she had dropped her pistol during the frantic escape.
David saw her movement and aggressively pointed the shotgun directly at her chest.
"Do not even breathe, princess," David warned harshly.
He pulled out a heavy pair of steel zip-ties and tossed them onto the floor in front of Alejandro.
"Bind her hands, and we walk back upstairs to make a deal with Richard," David ordered.
Alejandro slowly knelt down, picking up the plastic restraints.
He looked up at David, his brilliant mind calculating the exact distance between them.
"You forgot one critical detail about my company's technology, David," Alejandro said quietly.
"What are you talking about?" David snapped, taking a confused step forward.
"I never build a system without a manual override," Alejandro stated coldly.
Alejandro pressed a hidden button on his customized smartwatch.
The prototype grappling hook line, which was still attached to Alejandro's belt and trailing out the window, instantly violently retracted.
The high-tension cable whipped through the room and wrapped tightly around David's ankles.
The sudden mechanical force aggressively yanked David off his feet, sending him crashing face-first into a heavy oak desk.
The shotgun fired wildly into the ceiling as David dropped it in immense pain.
Alejandro lunged forward, delivering a brutal punch to David's jaw, instantly knocking the older man unconscious.
He quickly used the zip-ties to bind David's hands and feet securely.
"We need to get to the backup server room on the ground floor," Elena urged, grabbing the dropped shotgun.
They sprinted down the emergency stairwell, taking the steps three at a time.
They reached the ground floor lobby, which was completely deserted due to the massive power outage.
They broke into the secondary server room, where the emergency backup files were stored.
Alejandro plugged his encrypted flash drive into the main terminal, initiating the devastating virus sequence.
The progress bar appeared on the screen, slowly climbing toward one hundred percent.
"We are actually going to do it," Elena smiled, tears of immense relief filling her eyes.
The progress bar hit ninety-nine percent and suddenly froze.
May you like
A chillingly familiar voice echoed from the intercom speaker on the wall.
"Did you really think I would not have a manual kill switch?" Richard Sterling laughed mockingly.
