Chapter 7: Planning the Ascent
The blue uniform dress I had worn on the night of the gala hung folded neatly inside the bottom of my canvas duffel bag, but I knew I couldn't walk back into Leo’s corporate headquarters looking like a waitress. The strategy we mapped out over the next hour required precision, timing, and a quiet kind of audacity. Arthur laid out a set of architectural blueprints across the oak table, tracing the security blind spots and shift change schedules of the executive tower with a black fountain pen.
“The primary access control system was upgraded six months ago,” Arthur explained, tapping the pen against a secure entrance marked on the schematic. “Every active employee uses biometric scanners now. But old legacy sub-levels still maintain dual-layer verification using physical badge swipes linked to the master database from before the renovation.”
I reached into the front pocket of my jacket and pulled out a small, worn plastic card. It was my old employee access badge, slightly scuffed at the edges from months of carrying it in the pocket of my apron. Even though my employment had been terminated abruptly following the charity gala, the corporate security office was notoriously slow at purging revoked credentials from the legacy sub-level readers. It was a slim window of opportunity, but it was the only leverage we had.
“My badge should still ping the basement turnstiles,” I said, running my thumb over the faded magnetic strip. “The archives are kept right behind the old mailroom. If we time it for the shift change at midnight, the security guards will be rotating out for their thirty-minute briefing.”
Arthur looked at me, a flicker of profound respect crossing his features. He reached across the table and placed his hand over mine, his grip firm and steady. “I’ll be right behind you the entire time, Maya. If anything goes wrong—if the system locks or a patrol checks the log—we pull out immediately. No heroics.”
May you like
“I’m not trying to be a hero, Arthur,” I replied, managing a faint, humorless smile. “I’m just finishing a shift that started three years ago.”
We spent the rest of the afternoon rehearsing every detail of the infiltration. We synchronized our watches, established encrypted radio frequencies on our phones, and reviewed the escape routes through the underground loading dock. There was no room for hesitation. As the afternoon sun dipped below the city skyline, casting long, bruised streaks of orange and purple across the glass towers downtown, the weight of what we were about to do settled over the loft. We packed our gear into dark, utilitarian clothing, leaving the glamour of the gala world far behind us. The real work of dismantling Leo’s empire was about to begin.
