Chapter 7 - Someone Inside Vale’s House
Roman opened the door only after confirming the hallway was empty.
Tommy fell inside.
He looked terrible.
His shirt was dirty.
One eye was swollen.
His wrists were scraped from something that had restrained them.
Chloe felt an involuntary urge to move toward him.
She stopped herself.
Old habits were not the same as love.
Tommy saw the hesitation.
Pain passed across his face.
“Hey, Chlo.”
“Don’t.”
He nodded.
“Okay.”
Roman searched him.
Tommy did not resist.
No weapon.
No phone.
Nothing except a motel key card and a folded matchbook.
Roman held it up.
“Black Harbor.”
Tommy gave a tired laugh.
“I stole it years ago.”
“Sentimental?”
“I liked free matches.”
Roman was not amused.
“Talk.”
Tommy sat.
“Frank took me from the precinct.”
“We know.”
“How?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“He owns a lieutenant there.”
“Name?”
“Derrick Shaw.”
Miriam wrote it down.
Tommy looked at Chloe.
“I called you because Frank wanted the notebook.”
“You told him about it?”
“He already knew.”
“How?”
“Gabriel.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
Tommy continued.
“Gabriel told Frank I’d copied files.”
“When?”
“Months ago.”
“Then why am I alive?”
Tommy looked ashamed.
“Because I told them I didn’t know where I’d hidden everything.”
“You did know.”
“Yes.”
“And Chloe?”
“I told Frank she didn’t know anything.”
Chloe laughed softly.
“You hit me to protect me?”
“No.”
Tommy looked down.
“I hit you because I panicked and because I’m a coward.”
The simplicity of the admission left her without an immediate answer.
He continued.
“I spent years blaming money, Frank, my father, alcohol, stress. Whatever was nearby.”
His eyes rose.
“But nobody made me treat you that way.”
Roman looked away, giving Chloe the moment without appearing to.
Tommy said, “I’m not asking you to forgive me.”
“Good.”
“I just want to help finish this.”
“Why should we trust you?” Roman asked.
“You shouldn’t.”
Tommy reached toward his jacket slowly.
Roman tensed.
Tommy removed a folded piece of paper.
A parking receipt.
“Frank had me in a building near Queensboro Plaza. Basement garage ticket came from this lot.”
Roman handed it to Miriam.
“Check it.”
Tommy continued.
“Frank’s moving before the eighteenth.”
“How?”
“Gabriel thinks Chloe’s credentials may have been compromised when she updated her HR profile.”
Chloe remembered.
“Three weeks ago.”
Tommy nodded.
“They cloned part of the biometric file.”
“Part?”
“Voice.”
Chloe went cold.
“But not face?”
“They need a live facial scan.”
Roman looked at her.
“So they do need you.”
“Yes.”
Tommy swallowed.
“There’s more.”
Roman’s tone sharpened.
“There always is.”
“Gabriel told Frank you’d never willingly authenticate a Northstar release.”
“Correct.”
“So they built a workaround.”
“How?”
Tommy looked directly at Chloe.
“Your employee credentials aren’t listed because you’re supposed to approve the transfer.”
“Then why?”
“You’re supposed to reject it.”
Nobody understood.
Tommy continued.
“Marsten’s system flags a rejected high-level asset transfer for executive override.”
Chloe’s mind raced.
“Alan Pike.”
“Yes.”
“If my ID rejects it, Pike can override.”
“Yes.”
“And that creates a clean record showing Marsten caught the discrepancy and corrected it.”
Tommy nodded.
Roman understood.
“So Chloe is their cover.”
“Exactly.”
“They don’t need her to approve it.”
“No.”
“They need her face on a rejection.”
“Right.”
Chloe felt nauseated.
“My identity is being used to make the fraud look legitimate.”
Tommy nodded.
Roman asked, “How do they get the facial scan?”
Tommy hesitated.
“Gabriel.”
Roman stared.
“What about him?”
“He told Frank he had a way.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
Roman pulled out his phone.
He called Mercer Street security.
No answer.
A second number.
Nothing.
Then Elena.
She answered.
Roman’s voice changed.
“Elena, where are you?”
A pause.
His eyes lifted.
“What do you mean?”
Chloe watched him.
Roman turned toward the window.
“When did he arrive?”
Another pause.
“Leave now.”
His voice became harder.
“Elena. Do not argue with me. Leave.”
The call ended.
“What happened?” Chloe asked.
“Gabriel went to Mercer.”
“But we aren’t there.”
“He isn’t looking for us.”
Roman looked toward Chloe.
“He’s looking for the security archive.”
Chloe understood.
“The cameras.”
Roman nodded.
“The footage of me.”
If Gabriel obtained clear video of Chloe from the townhouse, he might have enough material to manipulate Marsten’s verification system.
Miriam shook her head.
“Facial verification should require live depth data.”
Chloe answered.
“Our older remote system doesn’t.”
Everyone looked at her.
“During COVID, Marsten added video approvals for employees working from home. It checks movement, voice, ID markers.”
“A recorded video could work?”
“Not normally.”
Tommy whispered, “Unless Pike controls the system.”
Chloe closed her eyes.
Of course.
Roman made three calls.
By the third, his people reached Mercer.
Gabriel was gone.
The security server was missing.
Chloe sat very still.
“We have less than two days.”
Roman nodded.
“What can stop the transfer?”
“Original documents.”
“Where?”
“Harbor 6.”
“Then we go there.”
Tommy laughed nervously.
“You think Frank isn’t already watching it?”
Roman looked at him.
“He is.”
“So what’s the plan?”
Roman glanced toward Chloe.
Before he could answer, she spoke.
“We don’t go to Harbor 6.”
Everyone stared at her.
Chloe pointed at the spreadsheets.
“Frank expects Roman to protect the originals.”
“Yes,” Miriam said.
“He expects me to hide.”
“Yes.”
“He expects Tommy to betray us.”
Tommy gave a humorless smile.
“Reasonable.”
Chloe continued.
“So we stop doing what he expects.”
Roman folded his arms.
“What are you suggesting?”
“We go back to Marsten.”
“No.”
“You haven’t even heard the plan.”
“I heard enough.”
“My company controls the authentication system.”
“Your company is compromised.”
“Parts of it.”
“You want to walk into the building where Pike works.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Chloe stared at him.
Roman stared back.
Tommy whispered to Miriam, “Do they always do this?”
“Apparently.”
Chloe said, “You keep trying to solve this like it’s your empire.”
“It is.”
“No. That’s why you’re losing.”
Roman’s expression hardened.
She continued.
“Frank knows your companies, your people, your habits, your security. Gabriel spent eighteen years learning how you think.”
Roman did not answer.
“He doesn’t know me.”
“He knows your employee file.”
“He knows a version of me.”
Chloe stepped closer.
“The version who shows up at eight forty-five every morning. Processes invoices. Eats lunch at her desk. Apologizes when somebody else bumps into her in the elevator.”
She looked toward Tommy.
“The version who went home every night to a man she was afraid to leave.”
Tommy lowered his eyes.
“That woman is useful to them because she’s predictable.”
Roman watched Chloe.
“She doesn’t exist anymore.”
The room was silent.
Miriam finally asked, “What do you need inside Marsten?”
Chloe answered.
“Access logs.”
“To prove Pike altered the system?”
“Yes. And archived backups.”
Roman frowned.
“What backups?”
“Every executive override creates a raw audit trail that ordinary administrators cannot delete.”
“Where?”
“Off-site compliance server.”
“Who can access it?”
Chloe smiled for the first time.
“Accounts receivable.”
Tommy blinked.
“Why?”
“Because somebody decided ten years ago that billing disputes required independent timestamp verification.”
Miriam laughed.
“Bureaucracy saves the day.”
“Maybe.”
Roman still looked unconvinced.
“What happens when Pike sees you?”
“He won’t.”
“How?”
Chloe met his gaze.
“You’re going to give Frank Russo exactly what he expects.”
Roman waited.
She continued.
“Roman Vale is going to publicly announce that Chloe Bennett stole confidential documents from him.”
Tommy stared.
“What?”
“Frank thinks I’m with Roman. We make him believe I’m not.”
Miriam slowly smiled.
Chloe continued.
“Roman throws me out. I return to work tomorrow claiming I made the worst mistake of my life.”
Roman understood.
“And Pike welcomes you back because he still needs your identity.”
“Yes.”
“He’ll watch you.”
“Yes.”
“He may detain you.”
Chloe’s expression hardened.
“I spent three years being underestimated by someone who watched me every day.”
She looked directly at Roman.
“I can handle Alan Pike for one morning.”
Roman did not agree.
Not immediately.
But ten minutes later, Miriam began drafting the false statement.
Roman Vale would accuse Chloe Bennett of theft.
His people would leak it to the right channels.
Frank Russo would hear within an hour.
And at nine o’clock the next morning, Chloe would walk through the front doors of Marsten Property Services alone.
Before she left the hotel room, Roman stopped her.
“If anything feels wrong, you leave.”
“I know.”
“No documents are worth your life.”
“I know.”
“Chloe.”
She looked at him.
His voice softened.
“You do not have to prove that you’re brave.”
She studied him.
“I’m not going back because I’m brave.”
“Then why?”
“Because I want my name back.”
At 8:57 the next morning, Chloe Bennett stepped into the marble lobby of Marsten Property Services.
Every conversation stopped.
May you like
And thirty floors above her, Alan Pike walked to his office window and smiled.
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