Chapter 7 - The Lobby Breach
Downstairs in the subterranean parking garage and the main lobby of the Meridian Residences, the automated security protocol had just overridden its normal operational loop.
Maya sprinted back to the living room console, her fingers flying across the touch-screen monitoring panel to bring up the CCTV feeds from the ground-floor security desk. What she saw made her blood run cold.
“Evelyn, look at this,” Maya called out, her voice pitching upward in alarm.
I left the study, stepping quickly back into the living room. On the multi-split monitor screen, the private elevator banks on the ground floor were surrounded not by local police, but by four heavily armed men wearing matte-black tactical gear with no insignia—the exact same private security detail we had encountered outside Vanguard Holdings and at the Indiana rail yards. They had bypassed the building's electronic gate by using an override code that only executive-level corporate officers possessed.
“They didn't come through the front doors,” Maya whispered, pulling up the subterranean loading bay camera. “They used the private service freight elevator. They’re coming straight up to the penthouse.”
Julian stumbled out of the study behind me, clutching the black flash drive in his trembling fist. “David Sterling knew I was burning the physical records. He sent a clean-up crew the moment my corporate terminal pinged the secure server download.”
“So you aren't just an executive who took bribes, Julian,” I said, turning to face him with cold, cutting fury. “You’re a liability they’re scheduled to terminate.”
“We have to lock down the panic room,” Julian urged, grabbing my arm with desperate urgency. “There’s an encrypted satellite comms link inside. We can contact Judge Harrison—!”
“Take your hands off me,” I hissed, wrenching my arm away with enough force to make him stagger backward. “We are not hiding in a panic room like trapped animals. Maya, grab the secure backup drive from the credenza. We’re taking the service stairs down to the underground garage before they reach the forty-fifth floor.”
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The intercom chimed again, followed by a dull, heavy thud echoing through the private elevator foyer—the unmistakable sound of a heavy hydraulic breaching charge being slapped against the outer reinforced doors.
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