Chapter 8 - The Missing Key
Claire stared into the empty steel vault.
“It’s gone,” she whispered, panic rising in her throat.
“The hardware key is gone.”
Ethan laughed, a wet, bloody, hysterical sound.
“Did you really think I would leave the master key in the office?”
He spat blood onto his expensive carpet.
“I moved it to my private hangar at O'Hare three days ago.”
“It’s sitting in the glovebox of my jet, waiting for me to fly to Zurich.”
Marcus swore aggressively, releasing Ethan’s hair.
“The airport is forty miles away,” Marcus said.
“The cartel will have the hangar surrounded by now.”
Vanessa chuckled from the corner of the room.
“My uncle’s men secured the jet an hour ago.”
“You are too late.”
Claire closed the empty vault door, her mind racing through the variables.
“If the cartel has the key, they would have already used it to restart the system and steal the money,” Claire analyzed out loud.
“But the power is still out, and the system is still locked.”
She turned to face Vanessa.
“They don't know what the key looks like.”
Vanessa’s smirk vanished entirely.
“It looks like an old, scratched USB drive, doesn't it?” Claire asked Ethan.
Ethan nodded pathetically.
“I put it in a box of old mints so security wouldn't notice it.”
Claire looked at Marcus.
“We have to get to the airport before they figure it out.”
Suddenly, the deafening sound of a helicopter rotor beat against the floor-to-ceiling windows.
A massive black tactical helicopter rose up outside the glass, shining a blinding searchlight into the office.
“Sniper!” Marcus yelled, tackling Claire to the floor.
The windows shattered violently as high-caliber bullets ripped through the office.
Ethan screamed as the chair he was tied to shattered, dropping him to the ground.
Vanessa used the chaos to dive for her fallen knife, slicing Ethan’s bindings free.
Instead of helping her, Ethan violently shoved Vanessa into the line of fire and bolted out the office door.
Vanessa caught a bullet in the leg and went down hard, screaming in agony.
Marcus grabbed Claire and dragged her into the hallway just as the helicopter circled around for another pass.
“Ethan is making a run for the roof!” Marcus shouted over the noise.
“He has a private chopper up there!”
“If he gets to the airport first, he will trade the key to the cartel for his own life!”
They sprinted toward the roof access stairwell.
Claire kicked off her remaining heavy clothing, running purely on adrenaline.
They burst onto the freezing, windy roof just as Ethan was climbing into a sleek corporate helicopter.
The pilot was already revving the engine.
Marcus raised his rifle to shoot the tail rotor.
Before he could pull the trigger, the FBI Director Vance stepped out from behind a ventilation shaft.
He pointed a heavy magnum revolver directly at Claire’s head.
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“Put the rifle down, Marcus,” Vance ordered calmly over the roar of the blades.
“Or I blow her brains out right here.”
