Chapter 7 - The Midnight Break-In
Emily stared at the cryptic text message, her thumb hovering nervously over the cracked screen of her phone.
She looked up at Victoria, who was holding the precinct's heavy glass door open with an encouraging, professional smile.
Emily quickly shoved the phone into her pocket, deciding she had absolutely no other choice but to trust the lawyer for now.
Noah was indeed sitting in the backseat of Victoria’s luxury sedan, nervously tapping his fingers against his knee.
“Did you get the message?” Noah whispered the second Emily slid into the leather seat beside him.
“You sent that?” Emily breathed out in relief, realizing the warning had come from her best friend.
Noah subtly shook his head, his eyes darting toward the rearview mirror where Victoria was watching them intently.
“No, I did not send anything, my phone was confiscated by the police when I tried to follow your squad car,” Noah mouthed silently.
Emily felt a cold sweat break out across her neck, realizing they were completely trapped in a moving vehicle with a stranger.
Victoria drove in complete silence, bypassing the school entirely and pulling into a dark, abandoned industrial park on the edge of town.
“Why are we here, I thought we were going to the school to hack the main projector?” Emily demanded, her voice shaking.
Victoria turned off the engine and locked the car doors with a loud, terrifying click from the master switch.
“The school is heavily guarded by private security tonight, we need to access the mainframe remotely,” Victoria explained smoothly.
She pulled out a heavy laptop from her briefcase and connected it to the car’s advanced satellite dashboard system.
“Give me the flash drive, Noah, I need to upload the ledgers to the school's broadcast server right now,” Victoria demanded, extending her hand.
Noah hesitated, gripping the tiny piece of metal in his pocket with sweaty, trembling fingers.
“If you really want to expose your ex-husband, why didn't you just take this drive straight to the FBI?” Noah challenged bravely.
Victoria’s professional facade cracked for a split second, revealing a flash of deep, genuine anger in her cold eyes.
“Because the FBI will freeze all the assets, and I want my money back before he goes to federal prison,” she snapped harshly.
Emily realized Victoria did not care about saving her scholarship or clearing her name of the false charges.
Victoria just wanted to use the ledger as blackmail to drain the offshore accounts before turning the principal in.
“Give her a fake drive,” Emily whispered into Noah’s ear, hoping he had a spare in his messy backpack.
Noah pulled out a small drive and handed it over, holding his breath as Victoria plugged it into the laptop.
A loud, piercing alarm suddenly blared from the car’s speakers, flashing bright red warnings across the dashboard.
Victoria screamed in frustration as the screen displayed a massive malware warning completely locking down her computer.
Noah unlocked the passenger doors manually, grabbed Emily’s hand, and they sprinted frantically into the dark, foggy night.
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Behind them, they heard the screeching of tires as another vehicle blocked the exit of the industrial park.
Mrs. Harper stepped out of the newly arrived car, holding a heavy metal flashlight like a weapon.
