Chapter 19 - The Last Trap
I turned.
No one stood beside me.
Then I realized Nathaniel meant someone inside my life.
He pointed toward a screen.
Daniel's photograph appeared.
My stomach dropped.
Nathaniel uploaded financial records claiming Daniel received twelve million dollars from Vale accounts.
Daniel shouted through my hidden earpiece.
“They're fabricated.”
Nathaniel continued.
“He didn't infiltrate us for Claire.”
“He worked for us first.”
Some of that was true.
That made the lie dangerous.
Daniel had built the transfer system.
He had hidden his role.
He had lied to me.
Nathaniel was using real guilt to manufacture false betrayal.
“You want me to doubt him,” I said.
“I want everyone to doubt everyone.”
Nathaniel pressed a button.
Files began uploading to the public broadcast.
Judges accepting bribes.
Doctors falsifying deaths.
Officials discussing children as liabilities.
Faces.
Names.
Dates.
The country watched in real time.
Then Daniel spoke in my ear.
“Elena, he's triggering something.”
“What?”
“The upload includes malware.”
Nathaniel heard me through studio microphones.
He smiled.
“The genius finally noticed.”
The files were designed to infect government and media systems downloading the evidence.
His goal was not exposure.
It was destruction.
Erase databases.
Corrupt prosecution files.
Collapse the investigation beneath millions of fake documents.
Truth buried inside noise.
Daniel could stop it.
But only if he reached the studio's physical server.
It was behind Nathaniel.
I looked at Marcus.
He understood.
I moved toward Nathaniel.
“You forgot something.”
“What?”
“Victoria thought she was smarter than everyone too.”
His eyes hardened.
I threw the original flash drive toward him.
He instinctively caught it.
Marcus kicked the chair backward into Nathaniel's legs.
Nathaniel fell.
I ran.
Daniel entered through the side door with tactical officers.
Nathaniel reached inside his jacket.
Marcus shouted.
“Gun.”
Agents fired.
Nathaniel collapsed.
Daniel reached the server.
His hands moved across the controls.
The broadcast flickered.
The malware stopped at sixty-three percent deployment.
The genuine evidence remained mirrored on independent servers.
Nathaniel's final plan failed.
He lay on the floor, barely conscious.
I crouched beside him.
“Where does it end?”
He looked at me.
For the first time, he seemed tired.
“It doesn't.”
“Yes, it does.”
He smiled weakly.
“Then why are you still afraid?”
I looked around the studio.
Federal agents.
Cameras.
Evidence.
Marcus alive.
Daniel alive.
Children coming home.
And suddenly I understood.
“I am afraid.”
Nathaniel's smile returned.
I continued.
May you like
“But fear isn't the same as obedience.”
His smile disappeared.
