Chapter 7 - PROJECT CROWNFALL
Fire ripped through the office.
Glass burst outward.
Alina hit the floor.
Marcus covered her with his body.
Smoke filled the room.
Rovan fired at Vale’s guards.
Richard disappeared through a private exit.
“Server!” Daniel shouted.
Half the room was burning.
“You said the files were there!”
“They are!”
Marcus grabbed a fire extinguisher.
“Then get them!”
Daniel crawled through smoke toward a backup terminal.
Alina joined Rovan behind a desk.
Two guards fired from the hall.
Rovan shot one in the leg.
Alina hit the second in the shoulder.
“Clear!”
Daniel plugged a drive into the terminal.
“Thirty seconds!”
Marcus sprayed flames away from him.
“You have ten!”
“That’s not how computers work!”
“Today it is!”
The ceiling cracked.
Alina saw a steel beam begin to fall.
“Daniel!”
He pulled the drive out and rolled.
The beam slammed down.
They escaped through the emergency stairwell as alarms screamed.
By the time firefighters arrived, they were three blocks away.
Daniel plugged the drive into a laptop inside Marcus’s car.
Folders appeared.
Bank transfers.
Satellite photos.
Emails.
Military orders.
Then one video.
Recorded three years earlier.
Alina pressed play.
Her father sat at his desk.
King Nikolai looked exhausted.
Across from him sat Prince Stefan.
“You cannot sell the northern valley,” Nikolai said.
Stefan slammed his fist on the desk.
“We need American investment.”
“We need our country more.”
“You’re destroying Velkria over pride.”
“No. I’m refusing to sell it.”
A third voice spoke.
Young.
Male.
Leo.
Alina leaned closer.
Her brother stepped into frame.
“Father, Stefan is right.”
Alina whispered, “No.”
The argument grew.
Leo accused their father of ruining the economy.
Nikolai ordered him from the room.
Leo shouted, “Maybe the country needs a different king.”
The video ended.
Nobody spoke.
Daniel opened another file.
Project Crownfall.
Marcus read.
“Emergency Succession Protocol.”
Rovan went pale.
“What?”
“After Leo’s coronation, there’s supposed to be an assassination attempt.”
Alina stared.
“On Leo?”
Marcus shook his head.
“On Stefan.”
Daniel scrolled.
“The attack gets blamed on democratic opposition groups. Martial law follows.”
Rovan understood.
“Leo becomes king, Stefan becomes a martyr, and the military crushes every political opponent.”
Marcus continued reading.
“Vale gets exclusive mineral rights for thirty years.”
Alina felt sick.
“Does Leo know?”
Daniel opened an encrypted message.
Sender: L.P.
Recipient: Stefan.
Five words.
SHE CANNOT BE ALLOWED HOME.
Alina stopped breathing.
L.P.
Leo Petrovna.
Her brother.
Marcus looked at her carefully.
“There could be another explanation.”
Alina closed the laptop.
“No.”
Her voice was quiet now.
Almost empty.
“There isn’t.”
Then her phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
A familiar voice said:
May you like
“Hello, sister.”
Leo.
