Chapter 5 - Forty-Seven Seconds
Aaron moved first.
He sprinted after board member Charles Decker as Decker crashed through the emergency stairwell door.
The other two board members raised their hands.
Margaret did not move.
Graham stared at the countdown.
“Forty-seven seconds.”
Elena forced herself back into the present.
“Margaret.”
“Yes.”
“Stop the transfer.”
“I can’t.”
“You started it.”
“I triggered it.”
“I didn’t design it.”
“Who did?”
“Evelyn.”
Elena stared at her.
Margaret stepped forward.
“This isn’t a transfer out of your control.”
“What is it?”
“It’s a test.”
Graham looked up.
“What kind of test?”
Margaret nodded toward Elena.
“Sign the rejection.”
Graham immediately shook his head.
“If she rejects, succession activates.”
“Yes.”
“And we don’t know the beneficiary.”
Margaret looked directly at Elena.
“Your mother did.”
Twenty-nine seconds.
Elena grabbed the tablet.
Graham stopped her hand.
“Elena.”
She looked at him.
“If you sign this, we may lose the company.”
“If I don’t?”
“We lose it anyway.”
Elena looked at Margaret.
“Did my mother trust the successor?”
“Yes.”
“Do you?”
Margaret hesitated.
That was enough.
Thirteen seconds.
“Elena.”
Graham’s voice sharpened.
“Decision.”
Elena placed her finger against the biometric reader.
Margaret watched without blinking.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Elena signed.
The screen went black.
For two terrible seconds, nothing happened.
Then a new message appeared.
TRANSFER REJECTED.
Below it came another.
SUCCESSION PROTOCOL ACTIVATED.
Graham whispered.
“Here we go.”
A name began populating the beneficiary field.
Letter by letter.
Elena’s heart hammered.
E. VOSS FOUNDATION TRUST.
She frowned.
“That’s not a person.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
Graham opened the trust record.
His face changed.
“Oh.”
“What?”
He turned the tablet.
The trust had one living administrator.
ELENA VOSS.
She looked at Margaret.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“You made me think I could lose everything.”
“I needed you to sign willingly.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother designed the system to transfer permanent control only when you chose the company without knowing you would keep it.”
Elena stared at her.
Margaret continued.
“Evelyn believed power reveals character.”
Elena’s anger rose.
“You played with a multibillion-dollar company to test my character?”
“No.”
Margaret looked toward the stairwell.
“I used the protocol to force the people who have been hiding inside Voss Global to expose themselves.”
Sirens sounded below.
Aaron’s voice came over the radio.
“We have Decker.”
Elena answered.
“Bring him back.”
Another voice interrupted.
“Ms. Voss, we have a problem in the lobby.”
“What problem?”
“Damian Cross.”
Elena’s jaw tightened.
“What did he do?”
“He’s gone.”
Graham looked toward her.
“What?”
The guard continued.
“He assaulted an officer during transfer and escaped through the loading garage.”
Elena’s expression hardened.
“Find him.”
Then another message appeared on Graham’s tablet.
A massive archive had just been remotely deleted.
The source account belonged to Damian.
But the destination log contained something far more disturbing.
May you like
Before deleting the archive, Damian had downloaded a file titled:
EVELYN VOSS — TERMINATION PROTOCOL.
