Chapter 6 - The Enemy Inside the Glass TowerWarehouse seventeen smelled like machine oil, wet concrete, and expensive trouble.
Cindy stood beside Andrew while technicians examined the empty server cabinets.
Whoever had entered the facility knew exactly what they wanted.
No smashed doors.
No unnecessary damage.
No missing cargo.
The surveillance system had been disabled for precisely eighteen minutes.
Professional.
Lucas walked toward them.
“Night guard remembers nothing.”
Andrew looked at him.
“He was drugged?”
“Probably. Medical guy found an injection mark.”
Cindy turned toward the loading area.
“Which server was stored here?”
“Routing backups,” Andrew said.
“All of them?”
“No.”
Cindy frowned.
“What?”
“Say it.”
“They stole obsolete data.”
Lucas looked confused.
“Obsolete?”
“We migrated routing to the new system six weeks ago.”
Cindy walked toward the empty cabinet.
“Those backups contain old schedules.”
Andrew understood.
“They wanted us to know they could get inside.”
“Yes.”
Cindy looked around the warehouse.
“This was a message.”
Andrew’s phone rang.
Lucas answered his own at the same moment.
Both men became still.
Cindy hated that reaction.
“What?”
Lucas spoke first.
“Building security.”
Andrew looked toward him.
Lucas listened.
Then swore.
“What happened?” Cindy demanded.
“Someone accessed your office.”
“My office?”
“At headquarters.”
Andrew grabbed her arm.
“We're leaving.”
They returned to Manhattan in nineteen minutes.
Cindy had never seen Lucas drive that fast.
When they reached the executive floor, nothing appeared disturbed.
Her computer remained on her desk.
Her purse remained inside the bottom drawer.
The photographs beside her monitor had not moved.
Andrew entered first.
Cindy followed.
A white envelope rested on her keyboard.
Her name was handwritten across it.
CINDY.
Andrew stopped her before she reached it.
“Don't touch anything.”
Lucas photographed the envelope.
Gloves appeared.
He opened it.
Inside was a single photograph.
Cindy recognized it immediately.
Her younger sister, Emily.
Walking out of a grocery store in Columbus.
The photograph had been taken recently.
Very recently.
On the back were six words.
YOU CAN’T GUARD EVERYONE SHE LOVES.
Cindy stopped breathing.
Andrew took the photograph.
Something terrifying happened to his face.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
His expression emptied.
Cindy had learned that Andrew shouting was dangerous.
Andrew becoming quiet was worse.
“Lucas.”
“Already moving.”
“Put six people on Emily.”
Cindy found her voice.
“No.”
Both men looked at her.
“My sister will panic if six armed strangers appear around her.”
“She can panic alive.”
“Andrew.”
“This is not negotiable.”
“It absolutely is.”
He turned toward her.
“Someone entered my building, reached your office, and left a photograph of your sister.”
“And that means we think.”
“It means I remove you both from circulation.”
Cindy stared at him.
“Remove us?”
“Safe house.”
“No.”
His eyes darkened.
“Cindy.”
“No.”
She pointed toward the photograph.
“This person wants you emotional.”
“I am emotional.”
“Exactly.”
Cindy stepped closer.
“They know how you react when someone threatens me. Donovan proved it.”
Andrew said nothing.
“They want you making decisions angry.”
“They threatened your sister.”
“And you're doing exactly what they expected.”
Andrew’s jaw flexed.
Cindy lowered her voice.
“Think.”
He hated that word.
Especially when she was right.
Lucas returned.
“Emily is secure. Two plainclothes teams. She won't know unless necessary.”
Cindy nodded.
“Thank you.”
Andrew looked at him.
“I said six.”
“And I enjoy breathing.”
Lucas shrugged.
“She asked for subtle.”
Andrew looked ready to fire him.
Then Cindy noticed something.
“Who knew we went to warehouse seventeen?”
Andrew turned.
“Several people.”
“How many?”
Lucas began counting.
“Security dispatcher. Two drivers. Warehouse manager. Me. Andrew. You.”
“And whoever called Andrew.”
“The warehouse foreman.”
Cindy walked to her computer.
“Whoever entered my office knew exactly when the floor would be empty.”
Andrew’s eyes narrowed.
“The leak is inside security.”
“Or has access to security schedules.”
Cindy opened a spreadsheet.
Andrew moved beside her.
“What are you doing?”
“Setting a trap.”
“No.”
“You don't even know the trap.”
“If you're involved, no.”
Cindy looked up.
“Then stop me.”
Andrew stared at her.
Lucas quietly moved farther away.
Cindy created six versions of a false shipping manifest.
Each contained a different warehouse location.
Each would be given to one suspect.
Whichever warehouse was hit would identify the leak.
Andrew watched.
“That’s dangerous.”
“The warehouses will be empty.”
“They may realize it’s a trap.”
“Then we learn something else.”
Andrew leaned over her desk.
“You are enjoying this.”
“No.”
She considered.
“Maybe a little.”
“That concerns me.”
“You run a criminal empire.”
“And somehow you're becoming the alarming one.”
For the next four hours, they built the operation.
By midnight, six false manifests had been distributed.
Then they waited.
At 2:43 a.m., Lucas’s phone rang.
Warehouse eight.
Andrew checked the list.
The false manifest for warehouse eight had gone to one person.
Marcus Hale.
Director of Corporate Security.
A man who had worked for Andrew for eleven years.
Andrew stared at the name.
“No.”
Lucas looked grim.
“Boss.”
“No.”
Cindy understood.
Marcus was not simply an employee.
He had attended Andrew’s father’s funeral.
He had protected Andrew’s mother during a kidnapping threat years earlier.
Andrew trusted almost no one.
Marcus was one of the few.
“Where is he?” Andrew asked.
Lucas made a call.
No answer.
Another.
Nothing.
Cindy looked at the internal system.
Marcus’s access badge had been used forty minutes earlier.
Parking garage.
“He left.”
Andrew walked toward the elevator.
Cindy followed.
He turned.
“Not this time.”
“Andrew—”
“No.”
Something in his voice stopped her.
“This is personal.”
“So was Donovan.”
“That is exactly why you stay.”
The elevator opened.
Lucas stepped inside.
Andrew looked back at Cindy.
“I mean it.”
She crossed her arms.
“I hate you.”
“No, you don't.”
“Currently considering it.”
His mouth almost moved.
Then the doors closed.
Cindy stood alone.
She waited ten seconds.
Then took the second elevator.
She did not follow Andrew.
She went to Marcus Hale’s office.
If Marcus had betrayed Andrew after eleven years, Cindy wanted to know why.
His office was almost unnaturally clean.
She searched the desk.
Nothing.
Cabinets.
Nothing.
Computer.
Wiped.
Then she noticed a photograph.
Marcus with Andrew’s father.
Both men were younger.
Behind them stood several dockworkers.
One face had been scratched out.
Cindy removed the frame.
On the back was written:
BROTHERS UNTIL THE WATER TAKES US.
She photographed it.
Then her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Cindy hesitated.
Answered.
“Hello?”
A man spoke.
“Ms. Stone.”
She recognized the voice.
Marcus.
“Where are you?”
“That doesn't matter.”
“Andrew is looking for you.”
“I know.”
“He thinks you betrayed him.”
“I did.”
The honesty surprised her.
“Why?”
Marcus laughed bitterly.
“Ask Andrew what happened to Daniel Hale.”
“Who?”
“My brother.”
The line went dead.
Cindy searched the company database.
Daniel Hale.
No employee record.
She searched archived shipping records.
Nothing.
Then old legal files.
Nothing.
Finally she searched Andrew’s father’s records.
Daniel Hale appeared once.
Twenty-two years earlier.
A dockworker.
Reported missing after falling into the Hudson during a nighttime loading accident.
Body never recovered.
Cindy stared at the screen.
Her phone rang again.
Andrew.
She answered.
“Where are you?”
“Marcus’s office.”
A long silence.
“I told you to stay.”
“I did stay. In the building.”
“Cindy.”
“Who was Daniel Hale?”
Silence.
That told her everything.
“You know.”
Andrew spoke quietly.
“Yes.”
“What happened to him?”
“Not over the phone.”
“Andrew.”
“I said not over the phone.”
Something crashed on his end.
Then shouting.
Gunfire.
Cindy stood.
“Andrew?”
More gunfire.
“Andrew!”
Lucas shouted somewhere in the background.
Then the connection died.
Cindy ran.
She reached the garage as a black sedan screamed around the corner.
It stopped.
Lucas jumped out.
Blood covered his forehead.
Cindy’s heart stopped.
“Where is he?”
Lucas opened the rear door.
Andrew was inside.
Alive.
Barely.
But he was not the only person there.
Marcus Hale lay beside him.
A bullet wound marked his abdomen.
Andrew held pressure against it.
“Get the medical room ready,” Andrew ordered.
Cindy stared.
“This is the man who betrayed you.”
“I know.”
Marcus coughed blood.
Andrew pressed harder against the wound.
Cindy helped pull him from the vehicle.
“Why are we saving him?”
Andrew looked at her.
“Because Marcus wasn't working for my enemy.”
“What?”
Marcus opened his eyes.
“He was trying to find them.”
Cindy froze.
Andrew’s face was grim.
“Our trap didn't expose the traitor.”
May you like
He looked toward the tower above them.
“It exposed the only man who knew we had one.”
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