Chapter 10 - The Master Key
"You're out of options, Mother," I called out, keeping my weapon raised while slowly stepping out from behind the concrete pillar, my eyes locked on her across the smoking aisle. "The master decryption server isn't locked down. If I press this brass token into the secondary port of the main terminal behind me, the entire global ledger of your shell companies uploads directly to federal oversight before your guards can clear the room."
Eleanor’s face tightened, the pristine facade cracking for a split second as genuine panic flared in her eyes. "You wouldn't dare. You'd destroy the family name forever."
"The family name died the night you killed my father," I said, my voice steady and cold.
I reached behind me, my fingers brushing against the heavy steel housing of the master terminal console that sat tucked into the recessed wall beneath the emergency lift. Without breaking eye contact with my mother, I slid the brass key into the mechanical override slot and turned it hard to the right.
A sharp, electronic chime rang out through the vault, followed instantly by a brilliant green status light flooding the console screen.
ACCESS GRANTED. UPLOADING SECURE ARCHIVES TO FEDERAL GRID...
"Stop him!" Eleanor shrieked, pointing her finger at me with a look of pure venom.
Her remaining guard raised his weapon, but before he could pull the trigger, Miller stepped out from behind the pillar and fired a single, precise round that caught the guard square in the weapon-hand, sending his submachine gun clattering to the floor.
At the same time, the heavy industrial emergency lift behind me shuddered to life, its steel doors sliding open with a loud pneumatic hiss to reveal a vertical shaft plunging upward into the upper levels of the financial building.
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"Get in!" Miller shouted, grabbing my jacket and yanking me backward into the elevator car just as Eleanor lunged forward with a handheld override remote, screaming in rage.
The elevator doors slammed shut in our faces, sealing us inside a tiny, dark compartment as the car rocketed upward at breakneck speed—leaving my mother behind in the dark, screaming orders into a dead radio, while the master terminal continued its relentless, automated upload of secrets that would bring the entire Waverly empire crashing down around her ears.
