Chapter 18: Floor 42

*“Detonation in 60 seconds. Floor 42. Evacuate now.”*  

The voice over the intercom was calm. Too calm.  

Harry Argent stood in the boardroom doorway, phone still in his hand, watching the panic spread.  

Jennifer didn’t freeze. She grabbed Mara’s arm. “Get her daughter to the stairs. Now.”  

David was already moving. “Marcus, sweep the floor. Laurent, get Interpol on evacuation. I’m going to 42.”  

Jennifer caught his arm. “No. You can’t—”  

“If Ravenna destroys the servers, we lose everything,” David said. “The evidence, the backups, the audit trail. I’m the only one who knows the override.”  

Harry laughed from the doorway. “Go ahead, David. Be a hero. The bomb’s on a dead man’s switch. Kill me, and it still goes off.”  

Agent Laurent stepped between them, gun drawn. “Nobody’s dying today. Move!”  

The alarms screamed louder.  

Jennifer shoved Mara toward the stairwell. “Go! I’ll find you!”  

She turned back to David. “You have 50 seconds. Don’t be stupid.”  

David kissed her, fast and hard, right there in the middle of the chaos. “I’m not dying on you, Jennifer.”  

Then he was gone, running for the service elevator with Marcus.  

Jennifer ran the other way.  

---

*Floor 42* smelled like ozone and burning plastic.  

David and Marcus hit the floor at 38 seconds. Smoke was already pouring from the server room.  

“Left!” Marcus shouted.  

They shouldered through the smoke, faces covered with wet cloths. The server room door was sealed. Red light flashed above it: LOCKDOWN.  

“Override,” David said, slamming his palm on the biometric pad.  

Denied.  

“Ravenna changed the codes,” Marcus said.  

David didn’t hesitate. He pulled his gun and shot the panel. Sparks flew.  

“Try now,” he said.  

Marcus tried again. The door hissed open.  

Inside, a black duffel bag sat on the floor. Wires ran from it to the main server rack. Red LED: 22 seconds.  

“Get back,” Marcus said, moving to cover him.  

David dropped to his knees. “I can disarm it. Give me 15 seconds.”  

He cut the blue wire. Nothing.  

Cut the red wire. The LED didn’t change.  

“It’s a decoy circuit,” David muttered. “She wants me to waste time.”  

Marcus grabbed his shoulder. “David, we have to go!”  

David looked at the server rack. All the data. Eleven years of evidence. Edward Benz’s original contract. The wire transfers.  

If this went up, Harry and Ravenna walked free.  

“Get out,” David said. “I’ll be right behind you.”  

Marcus hesitated, then ran.  

David pulled out his phone. One number. One call he never thought he’d make.  

“Ravenna,” he said when she answered. “Stop this.”  

Her voice was smooth, amused. “David. Did you miss me?”  

“Eight seconds,” he said. “You want me alive to see you win. So stop it.”  

“Or what?” she asked. “You’ll arrest me? I’m already in custody. Again.”  

“Or I tell Jennifer everything,” David said. “About Zurich. About your deal with Robert.”  

The line went quiet.  

“Three seconds,” David said.  

“Cut the green wire,” Ravenna said.  

David cut it.  

The LED went dark.  

He exhaled.  

Then the second LED turned on.  

*00:00*  

The explosion never came.  

Instead, the room filled with white gas.  

David dropped the phone and staggered back, coughing.  

Ravenna’s voice came through the speaker in the ceiling.  

“Sleep well, David. We’ll talk when you wake up.”  

Darkness took him.  

---

*Floor 1* was chaos.  

Jennifer burst out of the stairwell, coughing from the smoke. Reporters were everywhere, shouting questions, cameras flashing.  

“Where’s David?” she asked Agent Laurent.  

“On 42,” Laurent said. “Marcus just got out. He said David stayed behind.”  

Jennifer’s heart stopped.  

“No,” she whispered.  

The building shook. Not from an explosion. From the emergency suppression system flooding the upper floors with foam.  

Ms. Okoro grabbed her arm. “We have to get you out of here. Ravenna’s in custody, but Harry’s still loose.”  

“Harry’s not the threat,” Jennifer said. “Ravenna is.”  

As if on cue, Harry appeared at the bottom of the stairs, hands up, surrendering to Interpol.  

“Jennifer!” he called. “Tell them I cooperate and they drop the charges!”  

Jennifer ignored him.  

Her phone buzzed.  

Unknown number. Video call.  

She answered.  

Ravenna’s face filled the screen. She was in the back of an Interpol van, handcuffed, but smiling.  

“Did you miss me?” Ravenna asked.  

Jennifer didn’t answer.  

“David’s fine,” Ravenna said. “For now. He’s in my old safe house. Zurich. Room 4B.”  

Jennifer’s blood went cold.  

“That’s a federal black site,” she said. “You don’t have access.”  

“I have access to everything,” Ravenna said. “And David has access to nothing. No phone. No lawyer. No you.”  

Jennifer stepped forward. “What do you want?”  

Ravenna’s smile widened.  

“I want you to sign over Benz Holdings,” she said. “All of it. To me. Publicly. On camera. In 24 hours.”  

Jennifer laughed, short and bitter. “You’re insane.”  

“Am I?” Ravenna said. “Because in 24 hours, I release the video of you and David in the safe house. I release the audio of you threatening Harry. I release the forged emails that make it look like you hired the men who attacked your gala.”  

Jennifer’s stomach dropped.  

“You can’t—”  

“I can,” Ravenna said. “And I will. Unless you sign.”  

The call ended.  

Jennifer stood in the middle of the lobby, surrounded by chaos, and felt utterly alone.  

Agent Laurent appeared beside her. “What did she say?”  

Jennifer didn’t answer.  

She looked at the elevator.  

“Where’s Floor 42?” she asked.  

Laurent frowned. “Jennifer, you can’t go up there. It’s a crime scene.”  

“I’m going to Zurich,” Jennifer said.  

Laurent grabbed her arm. “You can’t just—”  

“Watch me,” Jennifer said.  

She turned and ran for the exit.  

---

*Zurich, 11:47 PM*  

The black site wasn’t on any map.  

It was a converted bunker under a defunct pharmaceutical plant. No signs, no guards at the front, just a steel door and a retinal scanner.  

Jennifer stood in front of it with nothing but her ID and David’s old access card.  

The scanner beeped red.  

Denied.  

She slammed her fist against the door.  

“Open up!” she shouted. “David Loriss is in there!”  

The intercom crackled.  

“Ms. Benz, you have no authorization,” a voice said.  

“Then get me someone who does!” Jennifer shouted.  

The door clicked open.  

Inside, it was cold and sterile.  

Agent Laurent met her in the hallway, face grim.  

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said.  

“Where is he?” Jennifer asked.  

Laurent hesitated, then nodded down the hall.  

Room 4B had no window. Just a steel door and a small slot at the bottom.  

Jennifer pushed it open.  

David was on the floor, hands cuffed behind his back, shirt soaked in sweat. He looked up when she entered, and his eyes widened.  

“Jennifer. Get out,” he said immediately. “It’s a trap.”  

Jennifer knelt beside him and checked his wrists. No blood. No broken bones.  

“What did they do to you?” she asked.  

“Gas,” David said. “I’ve been here for 12 hours. No food, no water, no lawyer.”  

Jennifer pulled out the key from her pocket. It was Ravenna’s old master key. Stolen from evidence by Marcus.  

She unlocked the cuffs.  

David sat up, rubbing his wrists.  

“Why are you here?” he asked.  

“Because Ravenna wants me to sign over the company,” Jennifer said. “Or she releases the video and destroys Mara.”  

David stood up, swaying.  

“She’s bluffing,” he said.  

“No,” Jennifer said. “She’s not.”  

David grabbed her shoulders. “Then we fight. We don’t give her what she wants.”  

Jennifer looked at him.  

“And if she hurts Mara’s daughter?” she asked quietly.  

David had no answer.  

The door behind them opened.  

Harry Argent walked in, uncuffed, smiling.  

“Perfect timing,” he said. “The family reunion.”  

Laurent stepped in front of Jennifer, gun drawn.  

“Back up, Harry,” Laurent said.  

Harry didn’t move.  

“I have immunity,” Harry said. “Deal with the federal prosecutor. I testify against Ravenna, they drop everything.”  

David stepped forward. “What do you want?”  

Harry looked at Jennifer.  

“I want Benz Holdings,” he said. “51%. Signed over to me. Now. Or Ravenna releases the video.”  

Jennifer felt sick.  

“You’re working with her,” she said.  

Harry shrugged. “She has better leverage than I do. But I’m willing to share.”  

David laughed, short and humorless. “You’re both dead.”  

Harry nodded to the door.  

Two men in black entered, guns raised.  

“Last chance, Jennifer,” Harry said. “Sign, or watch your boyfriend die again.”  

Jennifer looked at David.  

David looked back at her.  

“Don’t,” he said quietly.  

Jennifer took a breath.  

Then she pulled the flash drive from her pocket and held it up.  

“This is everything,” she said. “Every transaction, every email, every recording. If I die, it goes public. To every news outlet, every regulator, every shareholder.”  

Harry’s face changed.  

“That’s impossible,” he said.  

Jennifer smiled.  

“You should have checked the servers before you tried to blow them up,” she said.  

She pressed a button on the drive.  

On the tablet in Laurent’s hand, a progress bar appeared: UPLOADING.  

Harry lunged.  

David moved faster.  

He tackled Harry to the ground, and the two men rolled across the floor, fists flying.  

Laurent shouted for backup.  

Jennifer stood her ground, holding the drive high.  

“Ravenna!” she shouted. “You want a war? You’ve got one!”  

The lights flickered.  

And Ravenna’s voice came through the intercom.  

*“Jennifer. Look behind you.”*  

Jennifer turned.  

Mara stood in the doorway, hands raised.  

And behind her, a man held a gun to her daughter’s head.