Chapter 7 - The Broadcast
My knees stung from the impact, but I didn't make a sound.
I crept across the floor like a mouse, staying low behind the tall server racks, until I reached the main central terminal—a glowing blue glass desk in the center of the room.
I saw the master USB slot glowing with a faint blue light.
With trembling hands, I pulled the silver thumb drive from my pocket and jammed it into the slot.
The glass screen instantly flickered to life, glowing bright white.
"External Drive Detected. File Transfer Initiated," a clear automated voice announced from the terminal speakers.
The mercenary froze in the far corner of the room. "What the—?!"
He turned around, his eyes widening in shock as he saw an eight-year-old girl in a dirty dress standing at the master control terminal.
"Hey! Get away from there!" he screamed, bringing his rifle up and sprinting toward me across the room.
"Red button! Red button!" I gasped, frantically looking across the control panel.
Right beside the screen, protected under a clear plastic shield, was a large round red button labeled: EMERGENCY BROADCAST & SYSTEM OVERRIDE.
I flipped the plastic shield up with my thumb and slammed my small palm down onto the red button with all the weight in my body.
BZZZZZZT!
A deafening siren erupted throughout the entire sixty-story building. Red strobe lights began flashing in every room, every hallway, every office, and every elevator.
The mercenary reached me, grabbing my shoulder with a massive, heavy hand and throwing me back onto the carpeted floor. The silver thumb drive snapped in half inside the terminal slot, but it was already too late.
The progress bar on the glass screen reached 100%.
"Files Uploaded to Federal Servers. Public Broadcast Initiated," the automated computer voice announced.
Across the entire city of Metroville—on every news channel, on every giant digital billboard downtown, on every computer screen inside Graves Tower, and directly onto the phones of every major law enforcement agency in the state—Julian's private files began to stream in real-time.
Audio recordings of Julian orchestrating the fake exile of Clara Vance. Video footage of Julian paying off corrupt health inspectors. Documents proving hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from public charities.
And most importantly, the live video feed from inside the penthouse vault automatically turned on, broadcasting to the entire world.
On millions of screens across the state, viewers saw Julian Graves standing over a bleeding, bound Nathaniel Graves, holding a gun to his brother's head, shouting in a frantic rage.
"Where is the girl?! Tell me where she is or I'll blow your brains out right now!" Julian’s voice rang out across thousands of televisions and smartphones simultaneously.
The mercenary holding me down looked at his own smartphone vibrating violently in his pocket. He pulled it out, his face turning completely ash-white as he saw his boss's face on the front page of every live news network in the country.
"Oh, God..." the guard whispered, his hands shaking. "It's everywhere... he broadcasted it to the whole world..."
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He dropped his rifle onto the floor, backing away from me in absolute terror. "I'm out. I'm not going to death row for this crazy bastard!"
The guard turned and sprinted toward the emergency stairwell, leaving me alone in the server room.
