I drove my foot into the latch where the frame met the deadbolt.
The heavy door burst open with a deafening crash against the concrete wall.
Wendy gasped and dropped her phone.
Arthur snapped the laptop shut.
Jessi spun around, all color vanishing from her face.
“Ivan…” Jessi choked out, taking an involuntary step back. “You… you’re in Chicago—”
“I never left Connecticut, Jessi,” I said, walking into the room with slow, deliberate steps.
I ignored my wife.
Ignored Arthur.
Ignored Wendy.
I went straight to the table, lifted Fiona into my arms, and held her trembling body tightly against my chest.
She buried her face in my shoulder, clutching my coat with both hands.
“Daddy’s here, baby,” I whispered into her hair. “You did so good. You’re completely safe now.”
Arthur Vance tried to recover, stepping forward with an arrogant frown. “Ivan, listen to me carefully. You’re in over your head. Vance Global holds the digital authorization keys from your safe. By noon, the acquisition is ours. If you walk out that door, we will ruin you publicly—”
My phone chimed.
I pulled it out, switched on speakerphone, and held it up.
Leo’s voice filled the concrete room:
“Ivan, Protocol Zero is complete. The flash drive your wife copied contained our honeypot decoy files. The moment Arthur Vance plugged it into his network, it deployed a self-executing forensic tracker. The FBI field office in New Haven just flagged Vance Global’s accounts for federal wire fraud, identity falsification, and corporate espionage. Federal agents are three minutes from your location.”
Arthur went ghastly pale.
He stumbled backward into the table, knocking over his coffee.
Wendy released a high-pitched shriek and clutched her pearl necklace. “Jessi! Do something!”
Jessi dropped to her knees and looked up at me with desperate, tear-filled eyes—the same performance she had used for eight years.
“Ivan, please!” she wept, reaching for my coat sleeve. “They forced me into this! My father owed millions to dangerous people! I only did it to protect you and Fiona!”
