Chapter 77 No Longer About The Exit Strategy
The blinking red light on the mantle was a small, mocking eye that watched them from the shadows, and Alex reached out to rip the tiny device from the wood.
He sat back down at the desk and placed it next to the keyboard, his fingers moving over the mouse as he began to scrub through the hours of audio they had just discovered on the Harrington server. Sarah stood beside him, her hand was resting on the back of his neck and she could feel the heat radiating from his skin.
Mark stayed in the corner of the library, his chair was pushed back into the darkness and he was staring at the speakers with a look of pure disbelief.
"Listen to this part, she is talking to the city council clerk, the one who handles the historical property records for the downtown district," Alex said, his voice was quiet and calculated, and he hit the play button on a file timestamped two hours after they had been locked in the bunker.
"I need the signature from the 2006 Hayes filing, and I need it transferred to the new promissory note by the morning, because my father wants a clean kill and I want to make sure she has no room to breathe," Helena’s voice came through the speakers, sounding bored as if she were ordering lunch instead of planning a felony.
"The clerk is asking about the paper trail, he is worried about the audit," Sarah noted, she leaned closer to the monitor and watched the waveform of the audio, her mind already building the legal case that would end Helena’s career.
"He won't worry once the check clears, just get it done and send the digital copy to my private email, and make sure the original loan is shredded so there is nothing to compare it to," Helena told the man on the recording, and then there was a sound of a pen scratching on paper followed by the click of a hanging phone.
"She didn't just forge the note, she coordinated the destruction of the evidence in real time while we were sitting ten feet away from her listening devices," Alex said, he looked at Sarah.
"She sat there and watched us talk about our lives, she watched us think we were finding a way out, and she was laughing the entire time."
"She is talking about me now, listen to the way she describes my position at the site," Mark said from the corner, his voice was flat and he didn't move as a new file began to play.
"Mark is a useful distraction for Sarah, he keeps her emotional and he keeps her grounded in that neighborhood, so if we can keep him busy with the security shakedowns, she won't have the time to look at the London accounts," Helena said on the tape, she was speaking to someone who sounded like a private investigator.
"He is a disposable asset, a kid who thinks he is playing a part in a big drama, but he is just the bait we are using to catch the mother."
Mark closed his eyes for a second, and Sarah felt a sharp pain in her chest for her son.
She walked over to Mark and put her hand on his shoulder, but he didn't look up, he just kept listening to the voice that was dismantling his childhood piece by piece.
"She has no soul, Alex, she doesn't care about the company or the family, she just wants to be the only person left standing in the ruins," Sarah said, she turned back to the desk and looked at the mountain of data they had recovered.
"This is no longer about an exit strategy, we are not just walking away from the Harrington name, we are going to perform a public execution of her career in front of the entire board."
"I am going to take every one of these files and I am going to send them to the Vane lawyers and the city prosecutor at the same time, because I want her to see the handcuffs before she even realizes she lost the chair," Alex said, his fingers were flying across the keys as he began to package the audio files into an encrypted bundle.
"We need to stay here until the sun comes up, we need the Vane estate security to verify the integrity of the recordings so she can't claim we faked them," Sarah told him, she looked at the clock on the wall and realized they only had three hours before the business day began in the city.
"The Vane estate is a fortress, she can't get to us here, and my mother has already alerted the local sheriff that we are not to be disturbed by anyone carrying a Harrington badge," Alex said, but he stopped talking when a loud, piercing beep echoed through the library.
A red alert box popped up on the center monitor, showing the thermal feed from the Vane landing pad on the north side of the cliffs, and they saw a large, dark shape descending through the fog. It was a Harrington-owned helicopter, the one with the private seal on the tail, and it was landing without an invitation or a flight plan.
"She’s here, she must have tracked the login from the server," Mark said, he stood up and grabbed the flashlight from the table, his body tensing for a fight.
"No, that’s not Helena’s pilot, that’s the heavy lift bird, the one my father uses when he is traveling for the board," Alex said, he stood up and walked to the window, pulling back the heavy curtain to see the landing lights cutting through the gray mist.
They watched the side door of the helicopter slide open, and a man stepped out into the wind, his long coat whipping around his legs as he ignored the spray from the rotors. It was Richard Harrington, and he was walking toward the house with a slow, steady pace that showed he wasn't there to negotiate or talk about the past.
"He is coming to reclaim his son, and he is coming to take the drives back by force if he has to," Sarah said, she looked at the server rack and then at the door, her mind already calculating the shortest route to the safe room in the basement.
"He is not taking anything, and he is not leaving this house with me," Alex said, he turned toward the library door and straightened his shirt, his face a mask of cold, Harrington iron.
The sound of the helicopter's engines began to whine down, leaving a heavy, ringing silence in the air, and then they heard the front doorbell of the Vane estate chime, a sound that felt like a bell tolling for the start of the final battle.