Chapter 2 - The Digital GuillotineThe guards threw me onto the sidewalk.
The brass doors of the Solmere Hotel closed behind me.
For several seconds, I simply sat there.
Cars moved along Fifth Avenue.
Taxis honked.
Tourists laughed.
Nobody knew that the woman bleeding on the sidewalk was the legal owner of the building behind her.
I stood.
Then I walked twenty paces.
A closed designer boutique provided the perfect shadow.
I slipped inside the recessed doorway and pulled out my encrypted phone.
My fingers were shaking.
Not from fear.
From adrenaline.
For four weeks, I had lived in an abandoned Brooklyn brownstone, surviving on coffee, canned food, and four hours of sleep a night.
While Arthur celebrated my disappearance, I had been preparing.
I opened the application I had built myself.
SOLMERE INTERNAL NETWORK — ACCESS GRANTED.
The hotel's security cameras appeared on my screen.
I watched Victoria laughing inside the lobby.
Then I saw Arthur.
Charcoal Brioni suit.
Silver hair.
Perfect smile.
He looked like the benevolent patriarch of a billion-dollar dynasty.
He didn't look like a thief.
He didn't look like a murderer.
That's what made men like Arthur dangerous.
They never looked dangerous.
I opened another file.
ORIGINAL BIRTH CERTIFICATE.
Then another.
FORENSIC AUDIT — $42,000,000 MISAPPROPRIATED.
The money had been transferred from Solmere renovation accounts into offshore accounts connected to Victoria.
I attached the assault footage.
Then the legal documents.
Then the financial audit.
My thumb hovered over one button.
BROADCAST TO MEDIA + INTERNAL CORPORATE NETWORK.
I thought about my mother.
About the night she died.
About the phone call telling me her car had gone over a mountain barrier because the brakes had failed.
About Arthur holding my hand at the funeral.
About the way he had whispered:
"You're all I have left, Charlotte."
I had believed him.
That was my greatest mistake.
I pressed the button.
UPLOAD COMPLETE.
Three seconds later, the screens inside the Solmere Hotel went black.
I stepped out of the alcove.
Crossed Fifth Avenue.
And stood beneath the golden Solmere sign.
May you like
Above me, the giant LED wall flickered.
The war had begun.
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