Good. Webb stepped further into the office. Ethan wants to get you out of the building. There's a safe exit through the south parking level. The flooding is less severe on that side.
Lead the way, she said, and Darius dropped from the ceiling. He came through the tile directly behind. Web, landed on both feet with his knees bent. Absorbing the impact the way you absorb it when you've done this enough times that your body knows how to be quiet about it and his forearm was across Web's shoulders and his weight drove the man forward into the desk before Webb could process what was happening behind him. Webb hit the desk edge with his ribs and made a sound like something deflating and Darius had his right arm pinned behind his back in the next half second.
The torque wrench laid across the desk where Webb could see it but not reach it. And Darius's voice was low and absolutely calm when he said, "Stay still. " Web stayed still. He was breathing hard, more from shock than pain, and his phone had clattered to the floor. And Victoria crossed to it in three steps and picked it up and looked at the last call. "Ethan Caldwell," she said quietly, like she was reading a gravestone.
She looked at Web. How long have you been helping him? Web said nothing. Marcus, her voice had changed, not louder. Something colder and more specific.
The police are coming. My attorney has already made the call. Whatever Ethan told you tonight, whatever he told you was going to happen and what your role was going to be in it, that plan is already over. She paused. Your only decision right now is whether you're the man who was following orders or the man who helped cover up $11 million of fraud and the attempted murder of a CEO.
Web's breathing changed slightly. The specific way that breathing changes when a word lands somewhere it hurts. Attempted murder, he repeated very quietly. You locked us in an elevator during a sabotaged power failure in the middle of a structural storm, Darius said from behind him. That's the charge.
Whatever Ethan told you it was, whatever he called it, that's what the DA is going to call it. Webb's head dropped. His shoulders under Darius's forearm lost some of their resistance. Not all of it, but enough. He said it was just going to be a bad night.
Webb said low, half to himself. He said the storm would cover it. He said she'd be delayed, disoriented, and by the time everything came back up, the documentation she'd been building would be he stopped. Would be what Victoria said. Gone.
Web said. Victoria's jaw set. He was going to wipe the servers. She said the backup systems when they cycle, there's a 12-se secondond window where the encryption on the archive server drops. He found it 3 months ago.