Chapter 10 - The SetupThe Vanguard Data headquarters was a gleaming, sixty-story tower of glass and steel in the heart of downtown. It was a monument to Owen's genius, now hijacked by the man who had destroyed his family.
It was 11:00 AM on Thursday. The sale of Vanguard to a multinational conglomerate was scheduled for noon. The lobby was buzzing with press, executives in thousand-dollar suits, and high-end security personnel.
Across the street, in a rented surveillance van, Owen sat in front of a bank of monitors. Marcus sat beside him, loading a fresh magazine into his sidearm. Mara was safely hidden hours away, watched over by Marcus's trusted sister, an off-duty nurse.
"Greg locked me out of the administrative controls yesterday," Owen said, his fingers flying across a mechanical keyboard. "But he forgot one thing. I wrote the foundational architecture of the building's internal network. I built a backdoor into the system five years ago, just in case we ever got locked down by a ransomware attack."
"Can you get us into the boardroom?" Marcus asked, pulling on a sleek, tailored suit that concealed his tactical gear.
"Better," Owen said, hitting the enter key. A progress bar flashed across the screen, hitting 100%. "I just hijacked the building's entire audio-visual system. Every screen, every speaker, every projector in Vanguard HQ now answers to this laptop."
Owen looked out the tinted window of the van, staring up at the penthouse suite where Greg was likely sipping champagne, celebrating his impending payday.
"You're going to walk right through the front doors, Marcus," Owen instructed. "Your fake ID will clear the guest registry. You take the elevator to the 59th floor. At exactly 11:55, I am going to trigger a localized fire alarm on the 60th floor. When security scrambles, you breach the boardroom."
"And you?" Marcus asked, eyeing Owen.
Owen closed the laptop, sliding the micro-SD card into his pocket. He reached under his seat and pulled out a heavy steel crowbar.
"I'm going to take the executive express elevator," Owen said, his eyes hard and dead. "Greg thinks I'm a terrified fugitive hiding in the woods. I want to look him in the eye when I take everything away from him."
The two men stepped out of the van and onto the busy downtown sidewalk. They didn't look like fugitives. They looked like reapers.
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Owen adjusted his jacket, his gaze locked on the glass tower. I'm coming, Greg.
Here are chapters 11 through 15, continuing the high-stakes, action-packed thriller. The tension reaches a boiling point as Owen brings the fight directly to the man who ruined his life.
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