Chapter 7 - THE BACKUP
“Get out!” Roman shouted.
Smoke rolled across the ceiling.
Luca grabbed one laptop.
I grabbed Titan.
Roman tried to reach the main server.
“Roman!”
“There’s a backup drive.”
“The room is on fire!”
He ignored me.
Of course he did.
A burning beam cracked overhead.
Titan barked wildly.
I ran back, grabbed Roman by his shirt, and pulled.
A section of ceiling crashed exactly where he had been standing.
For once, Roman Calder looked surprised.
“You just pulled me out of a fire.”
“Don’t make it sentimental.”
We stumbled outside.
Fire crews arrived within minutes.
Too quickly.
Roman noticed that too.
“Who called them?”
A guard checked.
“Automated system.”
Roman stared at the mansion.
“No. Someone wanted this controlled.”
“Meaning?”
Luca answered.
“Burn the library. Save the house. Make it look electrical.”
The same way Pier 9 had looked electrical fifteen years earlier.
My blood went cold.
Roman turned toward me.
He knew exactly what I was thinking.
“This is how they did it.”
“My father.”
“Yes.”
Rage came up so fast I almost couldn’t breathe.
“Your family killed him.”
Roman didn’t defend them.
That mattered.
Not enough.
But it mattered.
Luca held up the half-melted laptop.
“I copied the card before the breach.”
Roman turned.
“Where?”
Luca hesitated.
“Cloud.”
Roman stared at him.
“You put Calder security data on an external server?”
“You’re welcome.”
I almost smiled.
Roman actually did.
Then Titan began whining.
He circled me once.
Twice.
Then suddenly collapsed.
My heart stopped.
“Titan!”
I dropped to my knees.
His eyes were open.
But his limbs had gone weak.
Roman hit the ground beside him.
“What’s happening?”
I smelled something strange on Titan’s fur.
Chemical.
The same sedative.
“They got him.”
Roman looked murderous.
“How?”
I searched Titan’s coat.
Near his back leg, beneath thick fur, I found a tiny puncture.
A dart.
It must have happened during the chaos.
“Vet. Now.”
Roman lifted the 130-pound dog with another guard.
We loaded him into the SUV.
I climbed in beside him.
Roman sat opposite me.
For the first time since I met him, his hands were visibly shaking.
“He’ll make it,” I said.
“You don’t know that.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“Then don’t lie.”
I swallowed.
“Fine. I don’t know. But we move fast.”
Titan’s eyes fluttered.
Roman touched his head.
“Stay with me, boy.”
The dog barely moved.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A distorted voice whispered:
“If the dog wakes up, Nora Hayes dies.”
The call ended.
Roman had heard every word.
He lifted his eyes to mine.
And something terrifying settled behind them.
May you like
“They know your name.”
I whispered, “They knew my father’s too.”
