Just here to support my fiance, Marcus," Lucas said meekly, lowering his eyes. " I know my place." Thorne laughed, clapping Lucas on the shoulder hard enough to bruise. " Good lad. Stay out of the deep end."
Thorne turned back to Victoria. " I hear you're launching the VX tomorrow. Brave, considering the stability issues." " The only issue," Victoria said, "is that we're going to put you out of business. In fact, I'm so confident I'm willing to wager on it."
Thorne's eyes lit up. " A wager? A game of poker?" Victoria challenged. " High stakes, in the VIP lounge, right now."
Thorne looked at Chip, then back to Victoria. He couldn't resist a chance to humiliate her. " You're on." As the crowd surged toward the VIP lounge to watch the Titans clash, Lucas slipped away. This was the plan.
Victoria would keep Thorne occupied, drawing all eyes to the card table. Lucas had 10 minutes to find the truth. He moved through the shadows of the mansion heading for the library. He knew Thorne. The man was paranoid.
He kept his private servers hardwired in his home office, never on the cloud. Lucas encountered a keypad at the office door. He pulled out a small device, a brute-force decoder he had built from scraps at the garage. He attached it. Three.
Two. One. Click. The door hissed open. The office was dark, lit only by the blinking lights of a massive server rack in the corner.
Lucas rushed to the terminal. He didn't need to hack the firewall. He built the firewall three years ago. He typed furiously. > admin_login_bennett > password s_a_r_a_h_89 Access denied.
Of course. Thorne had deleted his account. Lucas cracked his knuckles. Okay, Marcus. Let's try the back door.
When Lucas had worked at Vanguard, he had embedded a hidden diagnostic tool deep in the kernel, something only he knew about, designed to track system overrides. He engaged the command line. Code streamed across his retinas. He felt the old rhythm returning, the flow state. Access granted.
He navigated to the archive from three years ago. The file was there. project_helios_test_log _final He opened it. His heart stopped. There it was.
A command line entered at 4:12 p.m. on the day Sarah died. > safety_override_auth _thorne > warning battery critical ignore y/n > y He did it. Lucas whispered, tears stinging his eyes. He manually overrode the safety. But then he saw something else.
A communication log from that same minute. An outgoing message to C. Montgomery Sterling Motors message The test will fail. Stock will drop. Buy in when it hits bottom. Lucas froze.
It wasn't just negligence, it was corporate murder. Chip and Thorne had colluded to crash Vanguard stock, buy it back cheap, and pin the failure on Lucas to clean the slate. They killed Sarah for a profit margin. Found something interesting? Lucas spun around.
Chip was standing in the doorway. He was holding a heavy silenced pistol. You really are a persistent cockroach, aren't you? Chip sneered, closing the door behind him. I told Thorne you'd try this.
He was too arrogant to listen. But I know you. You killed her. Lucas said, his voice trembling with fury. You and Thorne.
You killed my wife. She was collateral damage, Chip said, raising the gun. Business is messy, Lucas. You know that. Does Victoria know?
She suspects. Chip shrugged. But she won't be around to do anything about it. After I deal with you, I'm going to make sure the VX launch tomorrow is a fiery disaster. Victoria will be ruined.
The board will vote her out. I take over. And I merge with Vanguard. You're insane. I'm a visionary, Chip corrected.
Now, step away from the computer. Lucas took a step back. His hands raised. His mind raced. He was an engineer.
He solved problems. Problem gunman at 10 ft. Asset server rack cooling system. The server room used a liquid nitrogen cooling system to keep the super processors from overheating. The piping ran right above the door where Chip was standing.
Turn around, Chip ordered. I want to do this from behind. Less mess. Lucas looked at the pipe. It was held by a pressure valve.
I said turn around. Chip cocked the hammer. Lucas grabbed a heavy glass paperweight from the desk and hurled it, not at Chip, but at the pressure valve above Chip's head. Crack. Hiss.
A blast of sub-zero liquid nitrogen sprayed downward instantly, creating a cloud of freezing fog. Chip screamed, firing the gun blindly. Pop. Pop. The bullets shattered the window.
Lucas dove. He tackled Chip into the hallway. The gun skittered across the marble floor. Chip was younger, but Lucas was fighting for Sarah. Lucas landed a right hook that felt like 3 years of grief exploding.
Chip's nose crunched. Lucas scrambled up, grabbed the USB drive containing the evidence, and ran. He burst into the ballroom. Victoria! he shouted.
The card game stopped. Thorne looked up, confused. Victoria saw the blood on Lucas's shirt. We have to go, Lucas yelled. No!
Thorne signaled his security. Stop him. Three massive guards moved to intercept. Lucas didn't slow down. He slid under the legs of the first guard, tipped a waiter's tray of champagne into the face of the second, and grabbed Victoria's hand.
Run. They sprinted out the front doors, jumped into the VX, and peeled away just as bullets sparked against the pavement behind them. The morning of the launch was gray and overcast. The Sterling Motor Speedway was packed with 50,000 spectators and millions watching online. This was the moment of truth.
In the pit lane, the atmosphere was funereal. We can't do this, Victoria said, pacing the garage. Chip is gone. We can't find him. Thorne has lawyers blocking the release of the evidence you stole.
If we launch, they'll say we faked the logs. We launch, Lucas said. He was in a racing suit. Victoria stopped. What?
The designated driver, Mike, didn't show up. Chip got to him. Lucas said, pulling on his gloves. So, I'm driving. You're a mechanic, not a pro racer.
I know this car better than anyone on Earth, Lucas said. He grabbed her shoulders. Listen to me. The only way to beat them is to show the world that the VX is undeniable. If I win the exhibition race against the Vanguard prototype, their stock crashes.