Chapter 8 - BENEATH THE ELEVATOR
The doctors refused to release me.
My father solved the problem by bringing the hospital with us.
A private medical team traveled in the second vehicle.
Detective Ortiz rode in the first.
Henderson drove.
My mother sat beside me, holding my uninjured hand as the Manhattan skyline disappeared behind us.
The old NexusCore office looked smaller than I remembered.
The furniture store below had been replaced by a discount pharmacy.
The broken sign still hung above the alley.
Police vehicles surrounded the building.
An officer met us at the entrance.
“No sign of Mr. Vale.”
“What about Matthew?”
“Nothing.”
Detective Ortiz showed him the service elevator.
“Lock down every exit.”
The elevator had stopped functioning years earlier.
Behind its rusted doors, a maintenance ladder descended into darkness.
Henderson insisted on going first.
Ortiz followed.
I ignored everyone telling me to remain upstairs.
Each step down the ladder sent pain through my ribs.
At the bottom, we found a narrow concrete chamber beneath the shaft.
Three server towers stood against the wall.
A folding desk had been covered with financial ledgers.
Marcus had created a secret archive.
Every transaction Matthew believed he had erased remained there.
Ortiz photographed the room.
My father stared at the servers.
“This is enough to bring down half the board.”
“Not if Matthew destroys it.”
I looked toward the ceiling.
A faint smell drifted through the chamber.
Gasoline.
“Henderson.”
He smelled it too.
“Everyone out.”
A metallic sound echoed above us.
Then the elevator doors slammed shut.
The emergency lights went dark.
My mother called my name from somewhere beyond the chamber.
I reached toward her voice.
“Mom?”
A spark flashed near the ladder.
Fire raced across the floor.
Matthew had poured gasoline through the shaft.
Flames climbed the concrete walls.
Smoke filled the chamber.
Henderson removed his coat and beat at the fire while Ortiz radioed for help.
The servers began overheating.
“We need the drives.”
I moved toward them.
My father caught my arm.
“No.”
“If they burn, he wins.”
“You are not dying for a company.”
“It was never only a company.”
I pulled free.
“It is proof.”
Henderson kicked open a maintenance panel in the far wall.
Behind it was a narrow utility tunnel.
“Move.”
Ortiz disconnected the central drives.
My father carried two.
Henderson took the third.
My mother entered the tunnel first.
I followed, crawling because the ceiling was too low to stand.
Smoke pressed against my lungs.
Behind us, something exploded.
The shock wave threw me forward.
My injured wrist struck concrete.
I screamed.
My father reached back and dragged me through the darkness.
The tunnel ended beneath the alley.
Henderson forced open a storm drain.
Cold rain poured over us as we emerged onto the pavement.
Firefighters rushed toward the building.
Paramedics surrounded me.
Ortiz protected the drives beneath her coat.
Then an officer shouted from the roof.
A man was running across the neighboring buildings.
Henderson looked upward.
Matthew appeared briefly against the red glow of the fire.
He had been watching us burn.
Police moved toward the adjacent stairwell.
Matthew disappeared.
I stared at the roof until my vision blurred.
“He wanted to kill all of us.”
My father knelt beside me.
“No.”
His face was covered in soot.
“He wanted to destroy evidence.”
“He did not care who died with it.”
The distinction no longer mattered.
A paramedic placed oxygen over my face.
Detective Ortiz crouched beside the stretcher.
“We recovered the drives.”
“Can they be read?”
“We will know soon.”
An officer approached carrying a black phone.
“We found this near the roof access.”
The phone belonged to Matthew.
Its screen was cracked.
The last open message had been sent to Lauren.
YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO KEEP CLARE IN THE HOSPITAL.
Lauren’s response appeared beneath it.
May you like
I DID MY PART.
NOW GIVE ME MY SON.
