Chapter 5 - Blood Ties
Caleb felt the air completely leave his lungs.
He stared down at the sweet, elderly teacher with pure horror in his eyes.
Mrs. Baxter had just called the person on the phone "honey."
She explicitly mentioned taking care of the person's son.
Malik turned to Caleb, his face twisting into an expression of absolute betrayal.
"She is talking to your father, isn't she?" Malik whispered aggressively.
Caleb desperately shook his head, hot tears stinging the corners of his eyes.
"I swear to God, Malik, I had no idea he was involved in this money laundering ring."
Mrs. Baxter ended the phone call and walked out of the server room, locking the heavy steel door.
As soon as the room was empty, Caleb kicked the ventilation grate as hard as he could.
The metal gave way, and he dropped silently onto the server room floor.
Malik dropped down a second later, keeping a very careful distance from Caleb.
"If your dad is the mastermind, then maybe you led me down here into a trap," Malik sneered.
"If I wanted you dead, I would have let them shoot you in the hallway," Caleb shot back.
Caleb pulled a USB cable from his backpack and plugged his phone directly into the mainframe terminal.
His fingers flew across the keyboard as he typed complex command codes to override the jammer.
A green progress bar appeared on the main monitor, indicating the firewall was dropping.
"It is working, I am opening a cellular window for exactly thirty seconds," Caleb said.
He rapidly typed a 911 emergency text message, detailing the money laundering and the fake tactical team.
He hit the send button, praying the message would bounce to a local cell tower.
The progress bar hit ninety-nine percent, and then the entire computer screen froze completely.
A loud, obnoxious buzzer sounded from the speakers.
May you like
The screen suddenly flashed bright red, filling the room with an eerie glow.
Large bold text appeared on the monitor: "Authorization Required: Biometric Fingerprint of Arthur Vance."
