Chapter 10: Pandora’s Box
Chapter 10: Pandora’s Box
We thought the lockbox held paper. We expected crinkled documents, signed contracts,
and printed bank statements detailing Helena Vale’s web of corruption.
We were wrong. Sitting in the sterile, fluorescent-lit interrogation room of the FBI field office,
my father and I watched as the lead cyber technician finally cracked the physical locks on the steel box.
Claire stood by the door, her arms crossed, chewing her lower lip.
Inside the velvet lining lay a single, matte-black encrypted hard drive and a small, antique silver key. “
Plug it in,” my father ordered, his voice lacking the relief he had felt just an hour ago. The air in the room had grown heavy, thick with the sudden realization that monsters like Helena Vale don’t leave simple paper trails.
The technician connected the drive to an isolated terminal. The screen flickered, instantly bypassing the standard operating system, and a pre-recorded video filled the monitor.
It was Helena. She was sitting in her study, sipping a glass of wine, wearing the exact same white outfit she had worn when she pointed the gun at me.
Hello, Evelyn,” her recorded voice purred through the cheap computer speakers.
“If you are watching this, it means I am either dead or in handcuffs.
You played a brilliant game, little girl. But I did not build an empire by lacking foresight.”
She leaned closer to the camera, her cold eyes piercing through the digital divide.
“The files on this drive will indeed destroy the politicians I own.
But they are secured behind a dead-man's switch. Every twenty-four hours, a piece of the decryption code is sent to an offshore server.
If I do not personally reset the timer... a different protocol activates. A bounty, Evelyn.
Ten million dollars for your head, your father's, and the sweet, treacherous Claire. Paid in untraceable crypto to whoever finishes the job.
May you like
The countdown started the moment I was arrested.” Helena smiled, raising her glass. “Run, Evelyn. The whole world is about to become a locked door.”
The screen went black. A digital clock appeared in the center. 22:14:59. Twenty-two hours until we became prey.
