Chapter 7 - FIRE IN THE WALLS
The blast came from the east wing.
Windows shattered.
The floor jumped beneath Julian’s feet.
Smoke rolled through the hallway.
“Move!” he shouted.
Agents flooded the staircase.
One tackled Eleanor.
Another grabbed Lily.
Julian turned toward the smoke.
“The evidence room!”
“What?” an agent shouted.
“The hidden office!”
Fire alarms screamed.
Sprinklers activated.
Water poured from the ceiling.
Julian grabbed the lead agent.
“There’s a computer in a hidden room below the library. If the fire reaches it—”
“We’ll handle it.”
“No. You don’t know the entrance.”
The agent studied him.
“I’m Special Agent Nora Hayes.”
“Julian Vance.”
“I know who you are.”
“Then you know I spent twelve years with federal financial crimes.”
Hayes stared at him.
“You’re suspended.”
“I was framed.”
She looked toward Eleanor, who was being handcuffed.
“We’re beginning to figure that out.”
Julian pointed toward Lily.
“Get my daughter outside.”
“I’m not leaving you!” Lily shouted.
Julian hugged her.
“You already saved my life tonight.”
She clung to him.
“I don’t want to lose you too.”
“You won’t.”
Hayes took Lily.
Julian and two agents ran toward the library.
Smoke poured under the door.
Inside, the bookshelf was already burning.
Julian yanked the hidden mechanism.
Nothing.
“The heat jammed it.”
One agent raised a fire axe.
Three strikes later, part of the shelf collapsed.
They entered the tunnel.
The hidden office was full of smoke.
The laptop was still on.
Julian reached the desk.
The external drive slot was empty.
He froze.
“No.”
Hayes looked over his shoulder.
“What?”
“The drive I threw downstairs wasn’t Thomas’s.”
“What do you mean?”
“I switched them.”
He had hidden the real drive inside his jacket before confronting Eleanor.
He reached for it.
Empty.
His face drained.
“Someone took it.”
“Who?”
Julian remembered Victor attacking him in the wine cellar.
The struggle.
The impact.
Victor had searched his jacket.
“Victor.”
Hayes grabbed her radio.
“Suspect Victor Hale may have evidence. Lock down the grounds.”
Static answered.
Then one agent appeared in the tunnel.
“Ma’am!”
“What?”
“We found Hale.”
Julian turned.
“Where?”
“Outside.”
“Alive?”
The agent hesitated.
“He’s dead.”
Julian stared.
“How?”
“Gunshot wound.”
Hayes narrowed her eyes.
“From whose gun?”
The agent swallowed.
“We don’t know.”
Then he held up an evidence bag.
May you like
Inside was the encrypted drive.
Covered in blood.
