Chapter 7 - The Midnight Toll
I sawed frantically at the thick plastic bindings securing Chloe's wrists to the wooden chair.
The broken glass sliced deeply into my own hands, but the adrenaline completely numbed the pain.
"Faye, you came for me," Chloe cried, tears streaming down her bruised face.
"I will always come for you," I promised, finally snapping the last plastic tie.
Above us, the wooden rafters crackled aggressively as the fire rapidly spread across the dry ceiling of the warehouse.
A massive shower of orange sparks rained down around us like burning snow.
Ten feet away, Uncle Alan and Edric were locked in a vicious, desperate brawl over the stolen police shotgun.
Edric delivered a brutal headbutt to Alan's face, temporarily stunning him, and managed to kick the shotgun away across the floor.
My mother scrambled across the concrete, her expensive clothes ruined, and desperately grabbed the laptop that had survived the crash.
She opened the screen, her face illuminated by the harsh blue glow.
"It is exactly midnight!" my mother screamed hysterically, ignoring the fire completely.
"The trust fund is officially unlocked!"
She looked at Chloe with absolute madness burning in her eyes.
"Speak into the microphone right now, or I swear I will kill your sister myself!" my mother threatened.
She pulled a small silver handgun from her designer purse and pointed it directly at my chest.
I pushed Chloe behind me, shielding her from the weapon.
"You are not getting a single penny, Mom," I said, my voice steady despite the absolute terror gripping my heart.
Edric recovered from the fight, grabbed a heavy steel wrench from the floor, and smashed it forcefully into the back of Alan's head.
Alan collapsed onto the concrete, completely unconscious.
Edric slowly turned toward my mother, his face twisted into a demonic smile.
He walked toward her, completely ignoring the gun she was holding.
"Put the gun down, Martha," Edric commanded mockingly.
"You do not have the guts to shoot your own children, but we both know I do."
He reached out and forcefully ripped the handgun from my mother's trembling fingers.
My mother gasped, taking a step back as Edric turned the weapon directly toward her.
"I did all the dirty work for years while you played the innocent victim," Edric snarled.
"I do not need a partner anymore."
Edric pulled the trigger without a single second of hesitation.
The gunshot echoed violently over the roaring flames, and my mother collapsed silently onto the floor.
He stepped over her body and pointed the smoking barrel directly at Chloe and me.
"Now," Edric smiled, kicking the laptop across the floor toward my feet.
"Authorize the transfer to my offshore account, or you will join your miserable parents."
Chloe squeezed my hand twice, our silent language begging me not to give up.
I slowly dropped to my knees and placed my hands on the keyboard, pretending to comply.
I realized I did not need Chloe to authorize anything, because I already knew the administrator override password my father had secretly programmed.
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I rapidly typed the code into the system, bypassing the voice prompt entirely.
Instead of transferring the money, I activated the laptop's webcam and initiated a mass data dump directly to the FBI's cyber-crime division.
