Chapter 11 - FORTY-THREE MINUTES
Henrique’s corporate security team refused to help.
Eduardo controlled the building.
So Henrique called the one person he trusted least but needed most.
His former wife’s brother, Rafael.
Rafael had hated Henrique for years.
He answered with, “What did you do now?”
“I need access to a corporate backup server.”
“You own an IT division.”
“My board locked me out.”
Rafael laughed.
Then Henrique said, “It’s about Caio.”
The laughter stopped.
Twenty minutes later, Rafael met Samara and Henrique in the parking garage beneath Vasconcelos Tower.
“You look like hell,” Rafael told Henrique.
“I’ve heard.”
Rafael looked at Samara.
“You the waitress?”
“Apparently that’s my full legal name now.”
He almost smiled.
They entered through a maintenance corridor.
At 5:44, they reached the server level.
Locked.
Rafael plugged a device into the access panel.
Henrique looked at him.
“You said you worked in cybersecurity.”
“I do.”
“This looks illegal.”
“It is when I do it for free.”
The door clicked.
Inside, rows of server racks hummed.
Samara checked the labels.
“Four.”
They found it.
Rafael inserted a storage drive.
“Copying.”
5:51.
A security alarm sounded.
Henrique looked toward the door.
“How long?”
“Seven minutes.”
“We have nine.”
“No. We have however long it takes security to get downstairs.”
Footsteps echoed outside.
Henrique locked the door.
Samara stared at him.
“What exactly is the plan?”
“I’m improvising.”
“You’re terrible at it.”
“I usually have employees.”
The door shook.
Rafael watched the progress bar.
“Thirty-two percent.”
Henrique’s phone rang.
Eduardo.
He answered.
“You are committing theft.”
Henrique laughed.
“From my own company?”
“Step away from the servers.”
“No.”
“You’re finished.”
Henrique looked at Samara.
Maybe he was.
Strangely, it no longer frightened him.
“I should’ve been finished the first time a child got hurt and I didn’t notice.”
He hung up.
The door shook again.
Fifty-eight percent.
Samara’s phone buzzed.
A message from Caio’s nanny.
Caio keeps asking for you both.
Samara showed Henrique.
His face softened.
Then the server room lights went out.
Rafael cursed.
“They cut power.”
The emergency lights flickered on.
The transfer stopped at seventy-one percent.
“Did we lose it?” Samara asked.
Rafael pulled the drive.
“Maybe.”
Security breached the door.
Four guards entered.
Henrique raised his hands.
“Don’t fight them.”
Samara stared.
“That’s your brilliant plan?”
“For once, yes.”
They were escorted upstairs.
Eduardo waited in the boardroom.
Laura was gone.
Henrique stopped.
“Where is she?”
Eduardo smiled faintly.
“You’re worried about the wrong woman.”
Rafael quietly checked the storage drive.
His eyebrows lifted.
He turned the screen toward Samara.
One folder had copied completely.
HALCYON_ARCHIVE — INTERNAL INCIDENTS.
Samara opened it.
Hundreds of files.
Videos.
Reports.
Names.
Then she saw one folder that made her stop breathing.
DANIEL COSTA.
Her brother.
May you like
And beside his name was a red label.
SETTLEMENT AUTHORIZATION — H. VASCONCELOS.
