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“Wait!” Foreman called, still a few steps off.
The room was all ghostly shadows and cutout silhouettes, the only light from EXIT SIGNS and the distant glow of the cake visible in the reflection off the door’s security glass. A smaller image appeared behind Foreman’s tall silhouette. “Agent Foreman,” the female voice said, “Detective Gaynes, SPD. You’re interfering with a surveillance op.”
Liz used the distraction to pop open the door and slip inside, but with Svengrad immediately behind her and coming through as well. She turned quickly and bumped the man out of the way and hurried to push the door shut. A satisfying click rang out just as Foreman turned from Gaynes and lunged for the door. The thick glass muted whatever Foreman said to the detective, but even in the limited light, Liz saw his fury.
Liz hurried to the door of the neighboring server room, got it open, and turned to pull Svengrad through behind her just as the overhead lights switched back on. A dull electric hum filled the room. The server was a brushed, dark gray. It looked much bigger close up than she remembered. She went to work immediately, having no idea how much fuss Da
INPUT
USER ID:
PASSWORD:
This was her moment. Without her, the server would not permit access. Lou had been clear about how to play this moment, and she rose to what she considered the most important performance of her lifetime.
“Without me, this doesn’t happen,” she told Svengrad.
“You didn’t go to all this trouble just to change your mind.”
“The video.”
“You’ll have it.”
“Yes, I will,” she said. “And you will have your company back and your passport reauthorized when I do.”
“What’s this?”
“From my husband. Quid pro quo. You understand Latin, Mr. Svengrad? He said to tell you that he talked the government into releasing your product. But he also had INS make your passport invalid for travel outside the country. It all depends on the return of the tape.”
“Enter your password,” he said.
Lou had stepped her through this carefully, believing the conversation would take place over the phone. In person, she found it much more difficult to say it with conviction.
“Your company and your freedom for that tape,” she said. “Your word on it.”
“My word,” he said. She didn’t believe him.
Lou had insisted she bargain with Svengrad, despite her repeated arguments that he held all the cards. “It’s complicated,” had been Lou’s reply, who went on to say he couldn’t tell her everything that was in play.
She typed in her user ID, and then her password, which appeared as a series of asterisks.
Svengrad pushed her out of the way and sat down in the chair, and Liz did not attempt to fight him. She told him, “I was going to use whatever account information you gave me. You could have trusted that.”
Svengrad watched the screen as various commands were a
One of the loading instructions caught her eye-an account number she recognized-and for the first time she understood what David had done to hide the money. Brilliant, she almost said aloud.
Finally the screen they had both awaited presented itself, a preprogrammed menu offering wire transfer options. Svengrad instructed her to stand back from him. He slipped out a piece of paper, pulled the keyboard into his lap, leaning over it, and carefully input the information into the machine. She wondered if he knew about the camera looking down from above, or if his instincts were nothing more than blind luck. Either way, she thought he’d probably used Hayes’s know-how to cut off the surveillance. The entire process passed quickly. Liz marveled that all these weeks of agony had culminated in a few keystrokes and no more than a couple minutes of time.
Svengrad hit the ENTER key. The screen hesitated, then delivered a graphic a
Lou had fed her several lines, making her repeat them carefully, on the off chance Svengrad left the phone line open as he gave her wiring instructions. She said them now. “Yes, well… I, for one, never trust David when it comes to his programming.” Svengrad’s triumph suffered a momentary twitch of concern. “You and I saw that money get wired. For your sake, I hope it goes where you think it’s going.”
“David Hayes knows better than to cross me.”
“Yes,” Liz said. “That’s exactly what I thought.”
The screen indicated the drive was “REFORMATTING.” David had programmed the disk to erase itself and all traces of the transaction after the wire transfer was complete.
“Looks like he thought of everything,” Liz said, moving to the door ahead of Svengrad, who took a moment too long to come out of the chair. She pushed through to the sister server room and quickly out the secure door back into the office area, Svengrad now right behind her.
Da
Liz had nothing to say to Da
Gaynes said, “Whatever you did in there… Security crashed. Special Ops is on their way up. Foreman and I are going to try the stairs. You, Mr. Svengrad, I would suggest should return to the party. You try to leave now, they’ll question you. Mrs. B., it’s you they’re after, I’m afraid. It helps us all if you can delay them a little.”
Liz nodded. The group broke up as Phillip approached.
“Mr. Svengrad,” the CEO said in his best host voice. He didn’t look comfortable all of a sudden. “I see you’ve met Elizabeth!”
“Yes,” Svengrad said. “She was just explaining some of the complications of the switchover to me,” he said, eyeing Liz. “Quite impressive.”
Phillip eyed Liz and looked into the server room. There was no telling what might become of her when suspicions and the inevitable interviews began. Phillip stepped closer to Liz, throwing an arm around her. “Hell of a party, Liz. Well done.” He looked at Svengrad. “You have any more questions, Mr. Svengrad, why don’t you address them to me.”
At that moment, four undercover detectives rushed from an elevator, turning the heads of many in attendance.
Liz felt choked with emotion when she saw Lou among them, his eyes searching the room and finding her. He then registered Svengrad’s presence as well and a triumphant look overcame him. Proud. Defiant.
“What’s this?” Phillip asked, looking suspiciously at Liz.
“This…,” Liz said. “This is my husband.”