Chapter 11 - The Hostage
The gunman forced Martin into a chair near the wall.
Board members froze.
Security guards at the far entrance drew their weapons, but the gunman pressed the barrel against Martin’s ribs.
“No hero moves,” he said.
Ava recognized him from employee records.
Dean Mercer.
Former driver.
Former military contractor.
Fired six months earlier for threatening a supervisor.
Pike’s voice remained calm on speaker.
“I need one resolution passed.”
Ava stared at the phone.
“The sale.”
“The sale.”
“You think a board vote under armed threat will survive ten minutes in court?”
“It doesn’t need to.”
Ava understood.
The vote would trigger escrow instructions. Funds would move automatically. Intellectual property access codes would transfer.
Pike only needed the system to believe the vote had happened.
“Why bring Martin?” Ava asked.
Pike chuckled.
“To remind you that family loyalty has limits.”
Martin looked at her.
“I’m sorry.”
Ava’s voice was flat.
“You already said that.”
Mercer tightened his grip.
Pike continued. “Vote now.”
Ava’s screen flashed.
Detective Brooks had sent one line through a secure message channel.
KEEP HIM TALKING. BUILDING TEAM IN POSITION.
Ava asked, “Did Margaret know you planned to kill me?”
Silence.
Then Pike answered.
“Margaret knew the risk.”
Ethan went white.
Ava pressed.
“That’s not what her letter says.”
“What letter?”
There.
The first crack.
Ava leaned forward.
“The one she wrote when she realized you lied to her.”
Pike’s voice hardened. “She understood the arrangement.”
“No. She thought you would scare me. Delay me. Maybe injure me.”
Ethan stared at Ava.
She was bluffing.
But Pike did not know that.
“You cut the brake line too far,” Ava said. “You panicked.”
Pike snapped, “I did what was necessary.”
Brooks’s team now had the admission.
Mercer’s eyes flicked toward the hallway.
He knew something was wrong.
Ava saw it.
So did Lena, standing near the boardroom coffee station.
Lena picked up a metal tray and dropped it.
The crash made Mercer turn.
Martin lunged.
The gun fired.
Glass shattered.
Ethan pulled Ava down behind the table.
Security rushed from both doors.
Seconds later, Mercer was on the floor, disarmed.
Martin lay beside the wall clutching his arm.
Blood seeped through his sleeve.
He was alive.
Pike had heard everything.
The line went dead.
Brooks ran into the room.
“Trace?”
An officer shook his head.
“Burner through relays.”
Ava pushed herself upright.
On the screen, a new email appeared in her inbox.
Sender: Conrad Pike.
Subject: YOUR FATHER MADE THE SAME MISTAKE.
There was one attachment.
May you like
A photograph of Samuel Monroe taken twenty years earlier.
He was standing beside Margaret Vale.
