Chapter 3 - The Encrypted Key
Marcus locked the apartment door and pulled down the window blinds.
He sat down at his old wooden desk in the corner of the bedroom.
He pulled out an old laptop that had never been connected to the building's wi-fi network.
He reached into his inner jacket pocket and pulled out the cold metal flash drive.
The drive was unmarked, featuring only a small silver symbol engraved on the side.
He inserted the drive into the side port of the laptop.
The screen flickered black before a single prompt appeared on the display.
ENTER PASSCODE TO DECRYPT VAULT 7 DIRECTORY.
Marcus stared at the blinking cursor on the black screen.
He remembered the final words Eleanor had whispered to him while he was pinned to the floor.
"You confused a badge with authority."
He typed the badge number he had worn for eight years into the password field.
ACCESS GRANTED.
A dense tree of classified files appeared across the monitor.
Marcus scrolled through endless pages of financial records, security logs, and live camera feeds.
His eyes widened as he opened a folder labeled ACTIVE TARGETS.
The first file contained a full dossier on Eleanor Vance herself.
The second file contained detailed photos of Sarah leaving their apartment building just five minutes ago.
The third file contained a high-resolution photograph of Marcus's own face.
Underneath his picture were two chilling words written in red text: TERMINATION APPROVED.
Marcus felt a cold sweat break out across the back of his neck.
The black drive wasn't a backup of company security protocols.
It was an active hit list managed from within Vance Global Security.
Eleanor hadn't used him to hide financial theft or corporate fraud.
She had staged the public attack to hand him the hit list before her own board could execute her.
Suddenly, the screen began to glitch with static noise.
A red warning box flashed violently across the monitor.
GPS LOCATION TRACED: APARTMENT 3B.
A heavy thud echoed from the hallway outside his front door.
The sound of footsteps approached slowly, stopping right outside his apartment.
May you like
Marcus slammed the laptop shut and grabbed the flash drive from the port.
The brass door handle began to turn slowly from the outside.
