Chapter 3 - Seven Minutes of Darkness.
The first sound was not a gunshot.
It was glass exploding somewhere above them.
Adrian pulled Claire to the floor behind the sofa as emergency lights flickered red along the walls.
Simon dropped beside the coffee table.
Elias vanished into the darkness near the conference room.
“Everyone answer,” Adrian ordered.
“I’m here,” Simon said.
Claire pressed one hand against Adrian’s shoulder.
“I’m fine.”
Elias did not answer.
Adrian listened.
Nothing.
Then a door clicked shut.
“Elias!” Simon shouted.
Adrian raised a hand.
“Don’t call out.”
The emergency lighting brightened enough to reveal broken glass scattered near the far windows.
One pane had cracked but not collapsed.
A small round impact mark sat near the center.
Claire stared at it.
“That was aimed at the sofa.”
Adrian did not disagree.
His phone showed no signal.
The office landline was dead.
Simon checked the tablet.
“Network’s gone.”
Adrian looked toward the hallway.
“Backup security channel?”
“Nothing.”
Claire whispered the number before Simon could answer.
“Seven minutes.”
Adrian looked at her.
“What?”
“The cameras were looped for seven minutes when the Ledger was accessed.”
She pointed toward the wall clock.
“Someone knows exactly how long the building can be blind before the secondary system takes over.”
Simon checked the time.
“Then we have five and a half minutes left.”
Adrian’s gaze moved to the conference room door where Elias had disappeared.
“He knew the building systems.”
Claire shook her head.
“So does Simon.”
Simon looked offended.
“So do you,” she added.
That ended his protest.
Adrian’s voice stayed calm.
“No assumptions.”
He looked at Claire.
“Where’s the flash drive?”
She reached beneath her shirt collar and pulled a thin chain from around her neck.
A tiny metal capsule hung from it.
Simon stared.
“You’ve been wearing it?”
“Since Daniel gave it to me.”
“What’s on it?” Adrian asked.
“Martin’s last audit.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“You had my brother’s files around your neck while sleeping in my arms.”
Claire met his gaze.
“Yes.”
Even in the emergency light, she could see the wound that answer caused.
“I was going to tell you tonight.”
“That is becoming a very popular sentence.”
A faint mechanical sound came from the hallway.
The elevator.
Simon looked at Adrian.
“No one should be able to call it during lockdown.”
Claire closed her fist around the capsule.
“Someone just did.”
Adrian pointed toward the private stairwell.
“Move.”
They stayed low and crossed the office.
The emergency lights pulsed every three seconds, turning the hall into alternating strips of red and black.
At the stairwell door, Simon tried his keycard.
The panel flashed denied.
“Locked.”
Adrian pulled Claire behind him.
“Again.”
Simon tried a second time.
Denied.
The elevator indicator changed from 18 to 19.
Then 20.
They were on 42.
Claire looked at Adrian.
“That gives us less than a minute.”
Simon pulled a maintenance key from behind his belt.
“Manual override.”
The stairwell door clicked open.
Adrian caught his wrist.
“Why do you have that?”
Simon froze.
“Because I run operations.”
“You run acquisitions.”
“I used to run operations.”
Claire stared at the key.
“How long have you carried it?”
The darkness changed the balance between them.
Titles meant less when no one could see the office door.
Money meant nothing when the elevators answered to somebody else.
Adrian could hear Claire breathing beside him and Simon trying too hard not to breathe loudly.
Somewhere in the building, hundreds of ordinary employees had no idea their executive floor had become the center of a private war.
That mattered to Adrian more than he wanted to admit.
He had inherited a culture that taught senior people to treat collateral damage as a spreadsheet problem.
Martin had fought him about that more than once.
If Martin's death was connected to the same machinery, Adrian knew the night could not end with another quiet settlement.
Whatever happened next would have to survive daylight.
Simon’s expression changed.
“Years.”
The elevator passed 31.
Adrian released him.
“Questions later.”
They entered the stairwell.
Before Adrian could close the door, a shape moved in the office behind them.
Elias emerged from the conference room.
He was holding something in his hand.
“Wait!” Elias called.
Adrian pushed Claire deeper into the stairwell.
“Show me your hands.”
Elias lifted both arms.
In one hand was the second phone.
In the other was a small plastic security badge.
“I found this under the conference table.”
The elevator reached 40.
Simon swore.
Elias tossed the badge toward Adrian.
It landed on the carpet.
Claire recognized the photograph printed on it.
Her own face.
The name beneath the photo was not Claire Hayes.
It read Rebecca Martin.
Adrian stared at the badge.
Claire stopped breathing.
“Who is Rebecca Martin?” he asked.
Claire’s face drained of color.
The elevator chimed.
The office doors opened.
A man stepped out.
Adrian heard his voice before he saw his face.
“Rebecca?” the man called into the darkness.
Claire closed her eyes.
Adrian looked at her.
“You know him.”
Claire whispered the answer.
May you like
“He’s my father.”
DON'T WAKE THE BOSS
