Chapter 4 - The Empty Safe
The underground vault was completely stripped of every single document and hard drive.
Jonah stared at the empty metal shelves in absolute, terrifying disbelief.
"They are already gone," Stella whispered, her voice echoing in the hollow room.
Jonah aggressively gripped the armrests of his chair, his knuckles turning completely white.
"It is physically impossible to breach this vault and move that much physical evidence in less than an hour," Jonah stated.
He noticed a small, blinking red light attached to the main server rack in the corner.
He ordered Stella to roll him closer to inspect the strange device.
It was a highly sophisticated, military-grade data transmitter.
"They did not steal the physical files," Jonah realized, his voice completely devoid of emotion.
"They digitally copied everything and uploaded the data to a remote offshore server."
Stella looked at the small blinking light and felt a deep sense of dread.
"Can you trace the upload destination?" she asked nervously.
Jonah pulled a heavy, encrypted tablet from the hidden compartment of his wheelchair.
He rapidly typed a series of complex override codes, his hands shaking slightly from the stress.
The tablet screen flashed bright green, displaying the IP address of the receiving server.
Jonah completely froze, staring at the screen as if it were a venomous snake.
"The data was not sent to Victor's syndicate," Jonah whispered in shock.
"It was transmitted directly to the private residence of my younger sister, Elena."
Stella was incredibly confused by the sudden revelation.
"Your sister is trying to destroy your empire?" Stella asked.
Jonah shook his head, a dark, heavy sorrow filling his exhausted eyes.
"My sister has been in a deep coma for three years in a highly secure private hospital," Jonah explained.
"Someone used her personal residential server to frame her and hide their tracks."
Before Stella could ask another question, the heavy steel vault door suddenly began to swing shut on its own.
A loud, mechanized locking sequence echoed through the room as the massive deadbolts slammed into place.
They were completely locked inside the airtight, soundproof underground vault.
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The lights violently flickered and died, plunging them into absolute, pitch-black darkness.
A computerized voice echoed from the ceiling speakers, announcing that the vault's oxygen depletion protocol had been activated.
