Chapter 6 - BURN THE EVIDENCE
"Bathroom?" Evelyn shouted.
"No bathroom."
"Window?"
"Eighty-six floors up."
"Wonderful."
Smoke thickened.
Kendrick pulled out his phone.
No signal.
"They killed the repeaters."
Evelyn looked at the ventilation grate.
"Can Titan fit?"
Kendrick looked at the mastiff.
Titan looked insulted.
"No."
The fire spread.
Evelyn grabbed the ledger and flash drives.
Kendrick stared at her.
"What are you doing?"
"If we die, I'm not letting this burn first."
"We aren't dying."
"You sound very confident."
"I'm too angry."
He dragged the steel desk toward the glass partition beside the door.
"Help me."
They shoved it back.
"On three."
They slammed the desk forward.
The reinforced glass cracked.
Again.
Larger fracture.
Smoke burned Evelyn's throat.
Again.
The panel shattered.
Heat exploded inward.
Kendrick wrapped his jacket around Evelyn's head.
"Stay behind me."
They pushed through.
Titan leaped over the flames.
The hallway was burning at both ends.
Someone had planned it carefully.
They ran toward the stairwell.
Locked.
Kendrick fired at the electronic mechanism.
Nothing.
Evelyn looked upward.
"Service shaft."
"What?"
She pointed to an access panel.
"Older buildings have maintenance ladders beside elevator shafts."
"You know a lot about breaking into buildings."
"I've had hobbies."
He almost laughed.
They ripped the panel open.
A narrow ladder disappeared downward.
Titan couldn't use it.
Evelyn looked at the dog.
"No."
Kendrick searched the ceiling.
There.
Fire suppression pipe.
He fired at the sprinkler valve.
Water exploded across the corridor.
Titan barked.
Kendrick pointed.
"Stay!"
Titan lowered himself.
Evelyn climbed into the shaft.
Kendrick followed.
They descended two floors before an explosion rocked the building.
Evelyn slipped.
Kendrick caught her wrist.
For one terrifying second, she hung above darkness.
"Don't let go!"
"I wasn't planning to."
Her fingers slid.
Kendrick pulled her against the ladder.
Their faces were inches apart.
Evelyn's breath came fast.
"Thanks."
"You're becoming expensive."
"Put it on my tab."
They reached eighty-four.
Security teams met them.
Penny came running.
"Daddy!"
Kendrick dropped to his knees.
She crashed into him.
Then she saw Evelyn.
Penny ran to her too.
Kendrick watched his daughter cling to the woman who had entered his building under a false name.
Something inside him shifted.
Then his security chief approached.
"Boss."
"What?"
"We checked the floor cameras."
"And?"
"They were disabled fourteen minutes before you went down."
"By whom?"
The man hesitated.
Kendrick's eyes sharpened.
"Say it."
"The authorization came from your personal access code."
Kendrick went still.
"That's impossible."
"There's more."
The security chief held out a tablet.
"Your code was entered from a terminal in your private office."
Kendrick looked toward the elevators.
Nobody besides him should have been able to enter that office.
Nobody except one person.
His uncle Barrett.
But Barrett hadn't been seen since the lockdown.
Evelyn looked at Kendrick.
"Where is he?"
The answer came seconds later.
A guard ran toward them.
"Penny's nanny is missing."
Kendrick grabbed him.
"What?"
"The nanny and Barrett both disappeared."
Then another guard spoke through the radio.
"Sir... you need to see this."
A video had been left on Kendrick's office computer.
Barrett appeared on-screen.
Behind him sat Penny's nanny, tied to a chair.
Barrett smiled.
"Kendrick, if you're watching this, Evelyn found the archive."
He leaned closer to the camera.
May you like
"So now we stop pretending we're family."
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