Chapter 9 - The House Always Wins
Preston hit the ground hard, the gun skittering across the polished hardwood floor.
Sofia didn't hesitate.
She scrambled over Preston's thrashing body and sprinted into Marcus's office.
The server room was a chaotic mess of sparking wires and blaring alarms.
Marcus roared in anger, lunging after Sofia, but Anthony tackled him around the waist.
The two older men crashed into a heavy mahogany bookshelf, books and crystal awards raining down on them.
"You're destroying everything we built!" Marcus screamed, punching Anthony in the ribs.
"You destroyed it the minute you let a monster into my family!" Anthony roared back, delivering a brutal right hook to Marcus's jaw.
Inside the server room, Sofia found the main terminal.
She shoved Jimmy's digital battering ram into the USB port.
A red progress bar appeared on the screen, crawling agonizingly slowly.
10%... 20%...
Preston staggered to his feet in the hallway, his face twisted in pure malice.
He picked up the gun, aiming it directly at Sofia's back through the broken doorway.
"Say goodbye, bitch," Preston hissed.
Anthony saw him. With a desperate surge of adrenaline, he kicked a heavy leather armchair directly into Preston's path.
Preston tripped, the gun firing wildly into the ceiling.
90%... 95%... 100%.
The screen flashed bright green: UPLOAD COMPLETE.
Suddenly, every screen in the office, every monitor in the restaurant, and every cell phone in the building began to ring and vibrate simultaneously.
Jimmy hadn't failed. He had bypassed the grid by bouncing the signal off a private satellite.
The raw audio files were now playing loudly on loop across every device in the network.
The corrupt politician's voices echoed down the hallways.
The sirens in the distance began to wail, growing louder by the second.
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Marcus froze, listening to his own voice plotting murder broadcasted over his own speaker system.
He slumped against the wall, his face completely pale. He knew it was over.
