The Hand off

The admin password.

It was the only thing standing between me and the truth. Between me and freedom.

But Julian had revoked it.

I stood in the garage, clutching the hard drive Leo had tried to steal. My mind was racing. *Admin_00*. That was Julian's old profile. The one he said I had missed when I purged the system.

But what if he hadn't used his old profile?

What if he had used mine?

I thought back to the night of the Missing Minute. The way he had leaned over the console in the Core. The way his fingers had moved over the keyboard.

He hadn't been hacking. He had been logging in.

With my credentials.

Which meant he knew my password.

And if he knew my password... maybe he hadn't changed it. Maybe he had just locked me out using a secondary authentication protocol.

I needed to get back to a terminal. Any terminal.

I looked at the scooter I had crashed. The battery was dead.

I was stranded at the bottom of the hill, five miles from the house and ten miles from the city.

I started walking.

My legs burned. My lungs ached. But I kept putting one foot in front of the other.

A car approached from behind. Headlights cut through the gloom.

I stepped off the road, hiding in the trees.

It was a police cruiser.

Sheriff Gorski.

He drove slowly, scanning the tree line with a spotlight. He was looking for me.

I held my breath, pressing myself against the rough bark of a cedar tree.

The cruiser passed.

I let out a shaky breath.

I kept walking.

It took me two hours to reach the outskirts of the city. My feet were blistered. My clothes were soaked with sweat and rain.

I found an internet café. A relic from the early 2000s, tucked between a vape shop and a laundromat.

I walked in. The bell above the door jingled.

The guy behind the counter looked up. He was young, bored, wearing a hoodie that said *Level Up*.

"Five dollars for an hour," he said, barely glancing at me.

I dug into my pocket. I had a twenty-dollar bill Leo had dropped in his apartment.

"Keep the change," I said.

I sat down at a terminal in the back. I plugged in the hard drive.

I held my breath.

The drive mounted.

I opened the folder. *Surveillance_Logs*.

I found the file I had copied. The Missing Minute.

I played it again.

Leo. The tablet. The hand on his shoulder.

I paused it. I zoomed in on the reflection in the window.

The watch. The Rolex Daytona.

But there was something else.

In the corner of the frame, barely visible, was a laptop screen.

It was open.

And on the screen... a chat window.

I leaned closer, squinting at the grainy pixels.

*User: Director*
*Status: Online*

*Director: Execute Phase 2.*

*Leo: I can't do it. She's my friend.*

*Director: Do you want your mother to keep her house?*

*Leo: Fine. I'm doing it.*

I sat back.

The Director.

Sarah had mentioned the Director. Julian had called himself the Director.

But if Julian was standing behind Leo... who was Leo talking to?

He wasn't talking to Julian.

He was talking to someone else.

Someone who was giving the orders.

I looked at the timestamp on the chat.

*23:41:58*

Two seconds before the minute disappeared.

I typed a command into the terminal. I tried to access the Aerie Point server remotely.

*Username: EVance*
*Password: **********

*Access Denied. Account Locked.*

I tried again.

*Username: Admin_00*
*Password: **********

I guessed Julian's old password. The one he used for everything. His mother's maiden name and his birth year.

*Access Denied.*

I tried variations.

*Access Denied.*

I stared at the screen. Think, Elena. Think like him.

If he was the Director, he would have a backdoor. A master key.

And he would hide it in plain sight.

I thought about the script. *The Savior Script.*

It was a production. A play.

And every play has an audience.

I typed in a new username.

*User: Audience*
*Password: WatchMe*

The screen flickered.

*Access Granted.*

My heart stopped.

It worked.

I was in.

But I wasn't in the admin panel. I wasn't in the security logs.

I was in a livestream interface.

*Stream Status: LIVE*
*Viewers: 12,403*

I looked at the feed.

It showed the living room of the Glass Box.

The fire was out. The windows were broken. The furniture was scorched.

And sitting on the ruined sofa...

Was Julian.

He was holding a glass of wine. He looked at the camera. He smiled.

"Welcome back, Elena," he said.

I froze.

He couldn't see me. I was in a café ten miles away.

"I know you're watching," he said. "I saw the login. 'Audience.' Clever girl."

He took a sip of wine.

"You missed the second act," he said. "It was quite dramatic. Fire. Explosions. A car chase."

He set the glass down.

"But don't worry," he said. "The finale is just beginning."

He stood up. He walked to the window.

"You see," he said, "the thing about a tragedy is that everyone has to play their part. The hero. The villain. The victim."

He turned back to the camera.

"But you went off script, El. You ran away. You tried to be the hero."

He shook his head.

"That's not your role."

He reached into his pocket. He pulled out a phone.

"I have something for you," he said. "A little incentive to come home."

He held the phone up to the camera.

It was a video call.

And on the screen...

Was my mother.

She was tied to a chair. In a room I recognized.

The sub-basement.

"Mom!" I screamed at the screen, forgetting where I was.

The guy at the counter looked up. "Hey, keep it down."

"Mom," I whispered.

She looked terrified. Her mouth was taped shut.

"She's fine," Julian said. "For now. But the air down there... it's getting thin. The ventilation system is still offline. I imagine she has about... an hour?"

He checked his watch. The Rolex was back on his wrist.

"Come home, Elena," he said. "Come finish the scene. Or she dies."

The feed cut to black.

I sat there, staring at the empty screen.

He had my mother.

He had won.

I stood up. I walked to the counter.

"I need a car," I said to the guy.

"What?"

"I need to borrow your car."

"Lady, are you high?"

I pulled out the gun. The Glock. I had kept it tucked in my waistband.

I pointed it at him.

"Give me your keys."

His eyes went wide. He reached into his pocket and threw a set of keys on the counter.

"It's the Civic out front. Please don't shoot me."

"I'm not going to shoot you," I said. "I'm just... improvising."

I grabbed the keys. I ran out the door.

The Civic was a piece of junk, but it started.

I drove back toward the mountain.

I didn't think. I didn't plan. I just drove.

An hour.

I had an hour to get back to the house, get into the sub-basement, and save my mother.

And I had to do it while Julian watched. While twelve thousand people watched.

I hit the switchback road. I didn't slow down. The tires squealed on the curves.

I reached the gate. It was open.

I drove up the driveway.

The house loomed ahead. Dark. Broken. A skeleton of steel and glass.

I parked the car. I got out.

The front door was gone. Blown off its hinges by the explosion.

I walked in.

The smell of smoke was overpowering. The floor was covered in debris.

"Julian!" I shouted. "I'm here!"

No answer.

Just the sound of the wind whistling through the broken windows.

I walked to the kitchen. The pantry door was open.

The wine rack was swung out.

I went down the stairs.

The sub-basement was flooded with water from the fire hoses. It was knee-deep.

I waded through the dark water.

"Mom?"

I reached the monitoring room.

The door was open.

I walked in.

The monitors were all on.

Showing me. Walking into the room.

And in the center of the room...

A chair.

My mother was sitting in it.

She was unconscious. Her head slumped forward.

"Mom!"

I ran to her. I ripped the tape off her mouth.

"Mom, wake up!"

She groaned. Her eyes fluttered open.

"Elena?" she whispered.

"I'm here, Mom. I've got you."

I started to untie the ropes.

"Did he hurt you?"

"Who?"

"Julian."

She frowned. "Julian? I haven't seen Julian."

"What?"

"A man brought me here," she said. "He had a mask."

"The man in the mask," I said. "Leo."

"No," she said. "It wasn't Leo. Leo is... Leo is dead, honey."

My hands froze on the ropes.

"What?"

"I saw it on the news," she said. "Before they took me. Leo's body was found in his apartment. overdose."

"That's a lie," I said. "I saw him. Last night."

"Elena," she said, grabbing my hand. "Leo has been dead for three days."

My mind spun.

If Leo was dead... then who was the man in the mask?

Who drove the van?

Who tackled the gunman?

I looked at the monitors.

I saw myself. Untying my mother.

And behind me...

Standing in the doorway...

Was a figure.

He was wearing the mask.

He raised a hand.

And he waved.

I spun around.

The man in the mask stepped into the room.

He reached up. He pulled off the mask.

It wasn't Julian.

It wasn't Leo.

It wasn't Marcus Thorne.

It was a face I didn't recognize.

A stranger.

"Who are you?" I whispered.

He smiled.

"I'm the understudy," he said.

He raised a gun.

"Julian couldn't make it tonight. He's... tied up."

He pointed the gun at my mother.

"Act Four," he said. "The Tragic Loss."

He pulled the trigger.

*Click.*

Empty.

He frowned. He looked at the gun.

"Cut," a voice said from the doorway behind him.

Julian walked in.

He was holding a remote.

"I unloaded it," he said. "Safety first."

He looked at me. He looked at the stranger.

"You're fired," he said to the man.

The man looked terrified. "Mr. Vance, I..."

"Get out."

The man ran.

Julian looked at me.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"You kidnapped my mother," I said.

"I secured her," he corrected. "Thorne was going to use her against you. I got to her first."

"You... you saved her?"

"I told you, Elena. I'm the hero."

He walked over to us. He finished untying the ropes.

"We have to go," he said. "Thorne is coming. And he's not bringing an understudy."

He helped my mother up.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"To the roof," he said. "The helicopter is waiting."

"What helicopter?"

"The one I stole from Thorne," he said. He grinned. "It's going to be a hell of a getaway scene."

We ran back up the stairs. Back into the ruined house.

We climbed the stairs to the second floor. To the roof access.

We burst out onto the roof.

The wind whipped my hair. The sound of rotors filled the air.

A black helicopter sat on the landing pad.

"Get in!" Julian yelled.

He helped my mother into the back.

I climbed in next to her.

Julian jumped into the pilot's seat.

He put on the headset. He looked back at me.

"Ready for the sequel?" he asked.

I looked at him. At the man who had terrified me, gaslit me, and saved me.

I didn't know if I loved him or hated him.

But I knew one thing.

I wasn't the victim anymore.

"Fly," I said.

The helicopter lifted off.

We rose into the night sky.

Below us, Aerie Point shrank into a small, glowing dot.

I looked down.

And on the roof, standing where we had just been...

Was a figure.

He was watching us leave.

He raised a hand.

And he waved.

It was Marcus Thorne.

And he was holding a remote.

I grabbed Julian's shoulder. "He has a detonator!"

Julian looked down.

"No," he said. "He doesn't."

He held up his hand.

He was holding the remote.

"I swiped it," he said. "When I stole the chopper."

He looked at the remote.

"Shall we give them an encore?"

I looked at the house. My prison. My creation.

"Do it," I said.

Julian pressed the button.

The roof of the Glass Box exploded.

A mushroom cloud of fire rose into the sky, swallowing Marcus Thorne, the house, and everything I used to be.

We flew into the dark.

And for the first time