Chapter 2 - The Setup
Victoria pressed the elevator button again. Nothing. She pulled out her phone. No signal.
Jax walked up behind her, holding a small, blinking black device he had pulled from the elevator’s card reader. "Military-grade signal scrambler," he noted, tossing it between his hands. "Whoever wants to stop your meeting isn't just playing dirty. They're playing for keeps."
Victoria’s blood ran cold. There was only one person ruthless enough, and wealthy enough, to pull a stunt like this: Julian Croft. He was her former business partner, a man she had ousted from her firm three years ago. He had sworn he would destroy her before she finalized the OmniCorp deal.
"The stairs," Victoria said, her mind racing. "The boardroom is on the seventieth floor. I can't climb seventy flights in fifteen minutes."
"You can't," Jax agreed, looking at her crimson-soled stilettos. "But the freight elevator operates on an analog pulley system. It bypasses the digital mainframe. I use it to move industrial generators."
Victoria looked at the grease-stained mechanic. He knew too much about signal jammers and analog bypasses for a guy parking cars. But she didn't have time to vet his resume.
"Take me to it," she commanded.
Jax led her down a dark, narrow utility corridor. He kicked open a heavy iron door, revealing a massive, cage-like freight elevator. He pulled a heavy lever, and the cage lurched violently upward.
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"Fourteen minutes," Jax said, leaning against the rusty iron grating. "You might actually make it. Assuming Julian doesn't have a welcome committee waiting."
Victoria’s head snapped toward him. "How do you know the name Julian?"
