Chapter 12 - The Midnight Breach
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At 11:45 PM, the basement server room of Whitmore Freight was silent, save for the low hum of cooling fans and the blinking green lights of the central mainframe racks.
I stood inside the glass observation booth overlooking the server room, beside Naomi and two plainclothes federal agents from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Down on the floor, Kelsey walked slowly toward the primary server rack, holding the silver flash drive in her trembling hand.
"She's in position," David reported through our headsets from the control desk. "Victor's Zurich server has just pinged our local gateway. He's monitoring her feed in real time."
Through the server room's security cameras, we could see the digital connection establishing on David's primary monitor. A progress bar appeared on the screen: ENCRYPTION DRIVE DETECTED – AUTHORIZING EXTERNAL ACCESS.
Suddenly, the heavy iron door at the end of the basement corridor flew open with a loud metallic bang!
"STOP!" a frantic voice screamed.
Evan stumbled into the server room, his suit dirty, his eyes wild with terror, holding a heavy tire iron in his right hand.
"Evan?!" Kelsey gasped, spinning around in terror.
"Don't do it, Kelsey!" Evan yelled, his voice echoing loudly through the concrete basement. "I followed you from the diner! My mother told me everything! If you plug that drive in, Victor will destroy us all!"
"Evan, get out of here!" I shouted over the intercom speaker from the booth. "You're ruining the sting operation!"
Evan looked up at the glass observation booth, his face twisted in utter confusion and rage. "Sting operation?! Clara, you don't understand! My mother just tried to commit suicide in her living room! She took a bottle of pills because of you!"
The entire room went dead silent.
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"What?" I whispered into the microphone.
"She's in the hospital right now!" Evan sobbed, dropping the tire iron onto the concrete floor with a deafening clatter. "She left a note, Clara! She said Victor isn't just trying to destroy the company... she said Victor is coming to Atlanta tonight!"
