Fraud Protocol

HartLine's tower was lit like a verdict.

The lobby guard tried to stop Roslyn. She showed him the warrant on her phone and walked past while he was still reading. Elise followed with Theo, one shoulder aching, one hand closed around Vivian's phrase.

Adam waited near the elevators.

"Before you yell," he said, "I came to help."

"That sentence has lost value," Elise said.

He held up an access card. "Executive floor. Martin never deactivated me because he thought fear was enough."

Roslyn took the card. "Stand by the guard."

"I know the secondary file room."

"Stand by the guard."

For once, Adam obeyed.

The executive floor smelled of lemon wax and panic. Mara Kline sat at Vivian's old reception desk with a laptop open and a headset on. Her brown coat hung over the chair. A bandage wrapped one hand.

She looked up and did not run.

"Too late," Mara said.

Theo moved to the laptop. "The bank session is active."

Roslyn cuffed Mara. "Where is Martin?"

Mara laughed. "Do you think he sits near crimes?"

Elise leaned over the laptop. The custody account screen showed voice verification pending. A waveform crawled across the page. Her own sentence, cut and smoothed, repeated in a tiny progress bar.

I am safe.

Theo yanked the network cable. The session switched to cellular backup.

"Of course," he muttered.

"Stop it," Elise said.

"I am trying."

Mara's smile shook. She was scared too. That mattered. "He said if the account opens, everyone gets paid and no one else dies."

"He lied," Elise said.

"I know."

The progress bar hit ninety percent.

Theo slammed the laptop shut. It kept processing.

Elise grabbed the headset and spoke into the microphone.

"This is Elise Hart. The voice sample is compromised. Lock the account under fraud protocol HartLine red twenty-eight."

The screen froze.

A message appeared.

Secondary passphrase required.

Mara whispered, "He said you would not know that one."