CHAPTER 2 — The Man Inside the Elevator
Deputy Director Jonathan Hale didn't hesitate.
"Lock down the building."
The command echoed through every radio channel.
Within seconds, airport security sealed every exit.
Elevators froze between floors.
Escalators stopped.
Travelers began shouting in confusion.
But Jonathan wasn't looking at the crowd.
He was looking at Officer Cole.
"You delayed my convoy for four minutes."
Cole swallowed hard.
"I... I thought—"
"You didn't think."
One federal agent gently handed Marcus an ice pack for his swollen wrist.
Another photographed the injuries.
Cole suddenly realized every camera around the garage had recorded everything.
His career was already collapsing.
Meanwhile...
On the twelfth floor...
One elevator opened before the lockdown fully activated.
A man in an airport maintenance uniform stepped out calmly, carrying an ordinary gray toolbox.
Nobody noticed him.
Inside the toolbox...
Hidden beneath cables and wrenches...
Sat a titanium briefcase no larger than a laptop.
The missing case.
Only three people in America knew what it contained.
Encrypted files exposing corrupt officials...
International money laundering...
And a list of undercover operatives whose identities could never become public.
If those files leaked...
Entire governments would fall.
Marcus suddenly remembered something.
"Dad..."
Jonathan turned.
"The janitor."
"What?"
"I saw a maintenance worker helping people before Officer Cole grabbed me."
Marcus closed his eyes.
"He bumped into me."
The entire team froze.
Jonathan whispered,
"He switched the cases."
Every tactical agent sprinted.
Security footage appeared on dozens of monitors.
Frame by frame...
They found him.
Maintenance uniform.
Gray toolbox.
Baseball cap.
Fake employee badge.
Then...
The cameras lost him.
Completely.
He had vanished inside one of the busiest airports in America.
Jonathan looked at Marcus.
"This wasn't random."
"They knew we'd be here."
Someone inside the federal system had leaked their route.
The enemy wasn't outside.
The enemy...
Was already inside the government.
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END OF CHAPTER 2
"But the biggest betrayal hadn't happened yet... because someone standing beside Jonathan was secretly working for the other side."
