Chapter 8 - The Desperate Call
The corrupt police chief reached aggressively for Adrian's wrist, fully intending to lock the desperate billionaire away in a cell forever.
Adrian knew with absolute certainty that if he was placed behind those iron bars, Malcolm would win the entire company by default.
Without a single second of hesitation, Adrian grabbed the chief's hot coffee cup and threw the scalding liquid directly into the corrupt man's eyes.
The chief screamed in blinding agony, dropping the heavy steel handcuffs to the tiled floor with a loud, clattering crash.
"Run!" Adrian yelled at the top of his lungs, grabbing Grace firmly by the shoulder and pushing her back out the glass front doors.
They sprinted wildly across the wet parking lot toward a marked police cruiser that had been left carelessly idling near the sidewalk.
Adrian threw his body into the driver's seat, slammed the car aggressively into gear, and tore out of the lot before the recovering desk sergeant could even draw his weapon.
The loud sirens blared automatically as the stolen police car merged recklessly onto the busy highway heading straight for the heart of Manhattan.
Grace gripped the plastic dashboard tightly, her knuckles turning pure white as Adrian pushed the heavy car well past one hundred miles per hour.
"We have exactly one single hour before the emergency board meeting officially begins," Adrian said, his intense eyes locked dead on the road ahead.
He violently grabbed the cruiser's radio microphone and ripped the wires completely out of the console so their location could not be tracked by dispatch.
They ultimately abandoned the stolen police car in a dark alley exactly three blocks away from the towering, gleaming glass structure of Whitmore Tower.
Adrian and Grace sprinted exhaustedly through the crowded city streets, completely ignoring the strange, judgmental looks people gave their muddy, torn clothes.
They finally reached the sleek, highly secure glass doors of the private executive entrance located deep in the rear alleyway.
Adrian placed his hand completely flat against the glowing biometric scanner, waiting impatiently for the familiar green light to grant him access to his own empire.
The expensive scanner beeped loudly in rejection, and the light instantly flashed a bright, warning red.
The automated, robotic security voice echoed coldly from the hidden speakers mounted above the heavy door.
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"Access denied, user profile has been permanently deleted from the global security registry," the machine announced flatly.
Malcolm had not just stolen the physical company; he had completely and utterly erased Adrian's digital existence from the entire corporate network.
