Chapter 8 - The Real Mastermind
I stared at the woman who had tormented me for eleven years.
Linda looked up at me with terrified, swollen eyes.
"Claire, thank god," she gasped through a mouth full of blood.
"Please, you have to untie me before he comes back."
I kept my gun aimed directly at her chest.
"Where are the master servers, Linda?" I demanded coldly.
"The servers don't matter anymore, Mark took everything!" she cried hysterically.
"Mark is a pawn, he works for you," I said, remembering what Emma had told me.
Linda let out a pathetic, broken laugh.
"You are so stupid, Claire."
"Mark doesn't work for me."
"Mark works for the people who actually own this city, and he just sold me out to save himself."
She begged me to cut the ropes, promising to give me enough money to disappear forever.
I walked over to the massive computer terminal on her desk.
I plugged in a blank hard drive I had bought at a convenience store.
I ignored her pleading and began rapidly downloading the decrypted financial files left on the screen.
I watched the progress bar slowly creeping toward one hundred percent.
Suddenly, the blaring sound of police sirens echoed from the street below.
Red and blue lights flashed brightly against the massive glass windows of the office.
The heavy security doors at the end of the hallway crashed open.
May you like
Dozens of heavily armed SWAT officers were storming the building.
I was completely trapped on the twentieth floor with a hostage, a stolen hard drive, and a gun.
