Slowly, he stepped forward. Too close. Close enough to intimidate. Most people would have backed away. Evelyn didn't move.

The data was out. Within an hour, the morning news networks would be flooded with irrefutable evidence of Arthur Thorne's criminal empire. But Elias knew that a cornered beast was the most dangerous kind. Thorne wouldn't surrender to the authorities. He would burn everything to the ground to cover his tracks and escape.

Elias and Clara emerged from the subway grates near the harbor as the sun began to rise, painting the sky in bruises of purple and gray.

Elias's burner phone buzzed. He answered it, putting it on speaker.

"You think you've won?" Thorne's voice hissed through the speaker, dripping with absolute malice. "The feds are knocking on my front door. My accounts are frozen. But I still have the VX gas at the docks. I'm going to release it into the city's ventilation grid, Elias. If I go down, millions of people go with me. Unless you bring me the girl and the original drive in thirty minutes at Pier 42."

The line went dead.

Clara looked at Elias, horror washing over her face. "VX gas? He's going to kill millions of people just out of spite?"

"He's a psychopath," Elias said, his voice cold as ice. "He knows the data is out. He wants revenge, and he wants a distraction to escape by boat."

"We have to go to the police," Clara pleaded.

"There's no time," Elias said, checking the magazine of a rifle he had taken off one of the enforcers in the club. "Pier 42 is five minutes away. By the time the police mobilize a hazmat squad, he'll release the gas. We have to finish this ourselves."

Clara looked at him, her fear suddenly hardening into resolve. "Tell me what to do."