Ch.35: The Plan Shift

The kiss wasn't a fairy tale. It was desperate, bloody, and tasted like rain and copper. It was two drowning people clinging to the only solid thing left in the world.

When we broke apart, I was trembling. Not from the cold. From the shift in my own gravity.

"We need a new plan," Julian said, his voice rough. He didn't step back. He kept his hands on my arms, steadying me.

"The old plan was to save Mia," I said, wiping the rain from my face. "That plan is dead."

"What's the new plan?"

I looked at the grave. At the muddy hole where my brother's voice had been buried.

"We stop running," I said. "We stop reacting. We go on the offensive."

"How? We're fugitives. We have no money, no resources."

"We have the drive," I said. "We have the evidence of the laundering. But Sterling controls the narrative. He controls the media. If we release the files now, he'll spin it. He'll say they're forged. He'll say it's a desperate ploy by a cop-killing lawyer and a billionaire murderer."

"So we need him to confess," Julian said.

"No," I corrected. "We need *her* to confess."

I pulled out the burner phone.

"Mia thinks I'm dead," I said. "Or on the run. She thinks she won. That makes her careless."

"She tried to kill Rats," Julian reminded me. "She's not careless. She's ruthless."

"She's ambitious," I countered. "And ambition makes you blind."

I opened the contact list. Kael's number was still there.

"What are you doing?" Julian asked.

"I'm calling in a favor."

I dialed. It rang once.

"You're alive," Kael's voice said. No surprise. Just fact.

"Sterling thinks I'm gone," I said. "Let him keep thinking that."

"What do you want, Harper? I gave you the shard. I gave you the witness. You blew it."

"I didn't blow it," I said. "I just realized I was playing the wrong game. I need to talk to Mia."

"She's in the wind. Sterling moved her to the penthouse."

"I know," I said. "I need you to get a message to her. Tell her I want to make a deal."

"A deal?" Kael laughed. "You have nothing to trade."

"Tell her I have the encryption key," I lied. "Tell her the shard was a decoy. Tell her the real key is in my head, and I'm ready to sell it."

Silence on the line. Then:

"Why would she believe you?"

"Because she knows I'm broke," I said. "She knows I'm desperate. And she knows that if I give that key to the Feds, she goes to prison for life. But if I give it to her... she gets the kingdom."

"It's a trap," Kael said.

"Of course it's a trap," I agreed. "But she's too greedy to resist."

I hung up.

I looked at Julian.

"We're going back to the city," I said.

"To the penthouse?"

"No. To the Firm."

We drove back in silence. The rain had stopped, leaving the city slick and black under the streetlights. We ditched the car in a parking garage in Sector 2 and took the service tunnels back to the financial district.

We didn't go to the lobby. We went to the maintenance hatch in the alley behind the Spire—the one I used when I forgot my badge.

We climbed thirty flights of stairs. My legs burned, but the adrenaline kept me moving.

We reached the server room on the 30th floor. It wasn't the main vault. It was the backup node. Less security.

I hacked the lock with the override code I had memorized.

Inside, the hum of the servers was a comforting white noise.

"What are we doing here?" Julian asked, watching the door.

"We're setting the stage," I said.

I logged into a terminal. I wasn't accessing files this time. I was planting something.

I opened the audio software. I pulled up the recording of Arthur Halloway's confession.

"I'm going to broadcast this," I said. "But not yet. I need Sterling and Mia in the same room when it drops."

I set a timer. 24 hours.

Then I pulled a small, adhesive device from my pocket. A bug. Kael had slipped it to me in the evidence locker, hidden inside the Faraday bag.

"I'm going to wear a wire," I said.

"Harper, no," Julian said, grabbing my arm. "If they find it..."

"They won't," I said. "Because I'm not going to hide it. I'm going to let them find the first one."

I showed him the bug.

"This is the decoy. The real wire..."

I tapped the charm bracelet on my wrist. The one Julian had returned to me.

"...is in the piano."

He looked at the tiny silver charm.

"You modified it?"

"Liam did," I said. "Years ago. He was paranoid. He turned this charm into a short-range transmitter. I never used it. I thought he was crazy."

I looked at the charm.

"Turns out he was just prepared."

I put the bracelet on. It felt heavy with history.

"I'm going to meet Mia," I said. "I'm going to get her to admit everything. The murder. The blackmail. The frame-up."

"And if she kills you?"

"Then you trigger the broadcast," I said, pointing to the terminal. "And you burn them all down."

Julian looked at me. He didn't argue. He didn't try to stop me. He just nodded.

"I'll be listening," he said. "If I hear a threat... if I hear anything that sounds like a weapon..."

"You come in," I finished.

"I come in," he promised. "And I don't stop until they're dead."

I took a breath. I straightened my ruined dress. I wiped the mud from my face.

I wasn't the victim anymore. I wasn't the sister.

I was the bait.

I walked out of the server room and into the elevator. I pressed the button for the Penthouse.

Time to play the loving sister one last time.