Chapter 5 - The Boardroom Lie
For three seconds, nobody in the Reed Global boardroom moved.
Then everyone started talking at once.
Daniel raised one hand.
The room did not quiet because he was physically powerful. It quieted because twelve careers had been built around the assumption that when Daniel Reed spoke, the future changed shape.
Marcus recovered first.
"Daniel. Thank God. We were told you'd been injured."
Daniel stared at him through the screen.
"You were told correctly."
"Then let us get you medical help. Tell us where you are."
"Interesting priority."
Marcus's expression did not change, but I saw his right hand tighten around the edge of the table.
Daniel continued. "I did not resign. I did not authorize temporary succession. Any document stating otherwise is fraudulent. Suspend the vote."
One director, a woman with short silver hair, leaned toward her microphone.
"Daniel, can you verify that this is a live connection?"
Marcus smiled faintly.
"Exactly. In the age of synthetic media, we can't allow a compromised feed to dictate governance."
Daniel's jaw tightened.
"Celeste, ask me something no recording could answer."
The silver-haired woman looked startled.
"What did my father say the night we opened the Singapore terminal?"
Daniel answered immediately. "He said the champagne was terrible and the dock lights made you look like a saint in a prison film."
A few board members exchanged glances.
Celeste's face softened.
"It's him."
Marcus stepped forward.
"Even if it is, he's obviously under duress. Look at him."
"I'm under duress because someone tried to kill me."
The boardroom erupted again.
Marcus's eyes sharpened.
"That is an extraordinary accusation."
"So is forging my signature."
Daniel uploaded a scan of the letter.
"My actual signature certificate was disabled at 1:48 a.m. by an internal security administrator. I was attacked twelve minutes later."
A director asked who had disabled it.
Daniel's fingers moved across the device.
"I'm retrieving the log."
The screen froze.
Every light on the router went dark.
"What happened?" I whispered.
Daniel's face went cold.
"Someone killed the connection upstream."
Leo looked toward the dining room.
"Power's still on."
Daniel tried the phone.
No signal.
Then the front bell chimed.
All three of us stopped.
Marcus's men had found us.
"Basement," Daniel said.
"Not again," Leo muttered.
The babies woke at once, as if they had developed a professional instinct for terrible timing.
I scooped up Evie. Daniel reached for Theo.
His face tightened with pain.
"You can't carry him," I said.
"I'm his father."
"That doesn't make your ribs optional."
Leo took Theo without waiting for permission.
"Congratulations," he told Daniel. "I'm promoted."
We moved toward the pantry.
A fist hit the front door.
"Boston Police! Open up!"
I froze.
Daniel grabbed my shoulder.
"No."
"They said police."
"Marcus has officers on payroll."
"You know that for certain?"
"I know because one of them shot at my car tonight."
Another blow hit the door.
Leo whispered, "If we don't open it, they break it."
I looked at the dining room camera monitor. Four uniformed officers stood outside. Two marked cruisers waited at the curb.
It looked legitimate.
That was what made it terrifying.
"We need proof," I said.
Daniel looked at me.
"Proof of what?"
"Everything. Not just the board vote. Not just your word against Marcus."
I remembered something from the alley.
"Your suit."
"What about it?"
"There was glass in the shoulder. And something metallic in the carrier strap."
Daniel frowned.
I pulled the torn double carrier from beneath the pantry shelf. A small flattened piece of metal was lodged near the buckle.
Leo stared. "Bullet?"
"Fragment," I said. "Maybe from the alley, maybe earlier. But if the police fired at him, ballistics could matter."
Daniel's expression shifted.
"My car has cameras."
"Where is it?"
"Garage beneath Beacon Tower."
"Marcus controls your security."
"He does now."
The front door splintered.
We went downstairs.
This time Leo came with us.
The bakery tunnel was narrow, but it led far enough away from the diner that the police searching the kitchen would not see us emerge. We reached the abandoned storefront and locked the hatch behind us.
Daniel sank against the wall.
"You're fading," I said.
"I know."
"We need a doctor."
"I have one person I trust."
"Who?"
"Dr. Samuel Ortiz. He delivered the twins."
"Can Marcus trace him?"
"Probably."
"Wonderful."
Daniel gave me a tired look.
"You sound disappointed when problems have solutions."
"Your solutions keep having armed men attached."
Leo stood by the boarded window, watching police lights flash near Ali's.
"Anna, you can't keep doing this."
I knew what he meant.
I had a job. A rented room. A fragile, ordinary life. Every minute I stayed with Daniel, I moved farther away from it.
"If I leave now," I said, "those babies become leverage."
Daniel looked at me.
"You don't owe us anything."
"I know."
That was the strange part.
I was not helping because I owed him. I was helping because I chose to.
His secure phone suddenly vibrated.
A message arrived despite the dead network.
From an unknown number.
YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES BEFORE THE BOARD ACCEPTS MARCUS'S VERSION.
Then a second message.
ANNA BENNETT IS NOT WHO YOU THINK SHE IS.
Daniel read it twice.
I leaned over his shoulder.
"What does that mean?"
He turned the screen toward me.
My own name stared back.
For the first time all night, I felt fear that had nothing to do with the gunmen.
"I have no idea," I whispered.
Daniel studied my face.
He believed me.
I could tell.
That made the next message worse.
ASK HER ABOUT THOMAS BENNETT.
My father's name.
The name of a man who had been dead for eleven years.
I stared at the screen until the bakery walls seemed to fall away. I remembered my father shaving at the kitchen sink because the bathroom light had burned out, humming badly under his breath. I remembered his hand on my shoulder the first day of sixth grade. Nobody in this room had known those things. Marcus could know employment records, accident reports, and whatever secret my father died protecting, but he did not own the man I remembered. That thought steadied me.
"Whatever this is," I told Daniel, "I want the truth. Not the version your company prefers, and not the version Marcus is using to scare us."
May you like
Daniel nodded. "Then we find it together."
For the first time since the alley, I was no longer just helping someone else survive the night. I had become part of the mystery, and I intended to see it through.
