Chapter 14 – Demi （February 14）
The screws are tiny and stubborn as hell.
"Come on, you little bastard," I mumble, the small screwdriver slipping in my sweaty grip.
I’m on my knees in the dark office, the only light coming from the small LED pen light clenched between my teeth, which I’m praying isn't visible from the hallway. The music from the auction downstairs is a dull, rhythmic thumping in the floorboards, a constant reminder that time is bleeding away.
Finally, the last screw gives. I catch it before it hits the carpet and shove it into my pocket with the others.
I pry the maintenance panel off with my fingernails, revealing the guts of the Heart-Box.
It looks like the inside of a computer tower with wires, chips, and a single USB-C port labeled DIAGNOSTIC.
"I’m in," I whisper, grabbing the drive from my bra where I tucked it earlier in case security searched the staff. It looks like a standard flash drive, but inside, it’s a weapon.
I slot it into place, holding my breath, waiting for the little light on the drive to turn blue, signaling that the script is running, flooding the cache, and forcing the reboot into diagnostic mode.
The light flashes…Red.
Then red again. A fast, angry strobing red that lights up the dark corner like a warning flare. My stomach drops through the floor.
"Damon," I huff, my voice tight. "We have a problem. The light is red."
There’s a beat of silence in my ear. "Red? That's bad. Red means hardware rejection. Describe the sequence."
"It’s a fast strobe. Like a panic alarm."
"Shit," Damon curses, the calm, professional veneer cracking just a little bit. "She must have patched it. It would have worked otherwise, I know it. I'll bet the firmware was updated, it's the only thing that makes sense. It’s checking for a physical key before it accepts the digital input."
"So the script won't work?"
"Not unless you have the physical master key to complete the circuit. Without it, the port is dead. It’s a brick, Demi."
I stare at the flashing red light, the reflection mocking me in the polished chrome of the safe.
A brick, right. I lean back on my heels and sigh.
All the weeks spent planning this. We built covers, hacked servers, infiltrated a fortress, and I’m kneeling here in a beige wig and orthopedic shoes staring at a metal box that might as well be a fucking paperweight.
"Can you bypass it?" I ask, just to be sure. "Can you brute force the handshake?"
"Definitely not from the van, and not quickly, if at all. Without more information I'd likely trigger a lockdown if I tried. The magnetic bolts will seal, and the silent alarm will scream directly to security."
"Abort," Andre’s voice cuts in, hard and absolute. "Blue, get out of there. Now."
"No." I protest, my hands hovering over the drive. "I’m here. I’m inside. There's another way."
"There isn't," Damon barks. "Pull the drive, Demi. If you leave it in too long, the system will log the intrusion attempt."
"Demi, listen to me," Andre commands. "Something is up."
I swallow the panic, the uncertainty and ask, "What?"
"Graves was looking at his phone and went straight to Thorne," Andre says, the background noise of clinking glasses and chatter filtering through his mic.
"They're talking, he's trying to get her away from Marcus.
He's showing her something. Fuck, they're moving.
I think they are heading for the elevator. "
I yank the drive out of the port. The red light dies, plunging the corner back into shadow.
"Get out of there," Andre growls. "Maybe he saw a sensor glitch. Maybe he’s just paranoid but he’s moving fast. You’re out of time. Doors are opening – they’re in the elevator."
I scramble to fit the maintenance panel back into place but I drop the first screw. It falls onto the plush carpet, disappearing into the weave.
"Fuck!" I pat around the ground, finding the cold metal.
"Two and a half minutes," Damon counts down.
I jam the screw in, twisting it with the driver. It’s crooked, stripping the threads, but I force it. Second screw. Third.
"Two minutes, maybe less…"
I skip the fourth screw. It doesn't matter.
This was always going to be the way so I shove the screwdriver and the drive into my pocket and push the heavy painting back against the wall but it bounces back open.
I close my eyes and pull hard on everything I am, everything I fought for and then let my muscles relax one by one until I feel ready and then I stand up and spin around to face the door.
"Blue. Get out."
I skirt around the glass desk and lean back against it and wait for what’s to come, I smile and say, “Pivot, Damon. Go live. Put my camera feed and audio everywhere for the world to see.”
My mom’s justice was right there, behind a metal plate, and I couldn't reach it so I’ll get it another way.
“Fuck, no! Get out of there, Demi. We’re done.”
"We’re not done," I say calmly, pushing myself up to face what’s about to come through those doors.
"Blue," Andre warns. "Don't be stupid. We regroup. We will find another way later."
"There is no later! The auction ends in two hours. If we don't get those files now, we won’t get another shot at it. This is the only window."
"We can't open the safe," Damon insists. "The script failed."
"There was always that chance. It was a good try but I hadn't originally figured we were going to bypass the biometrics. We need to use them."
"We don't have her eyes or her voice," Damon points out.
"We don't," I agree. "But she does."
Silence on the line.
"You planned this without telling us, didn’t you? You were always going to get Thorne into that office to open it, weren’t you?" Andre asks, his tone shifting from protective to furious.
I sigh again. "I’m sorry. I did have hope that the script might work but I will always have plan B and C to pivot to in any con.
Your script option was never plan A. This one is.
I want her to walk right into this office and open it for us," I tell them.
"We tried the ghost approach. It didn't work. Now we try the sledgehammer."
"This could end up a hostage situation, Demi," Damon warns with a slightly panicked tone. "That escalates this from grand larceny to kidnapping or even worse. Graves is with her and he’s armed. You could get hurt here. Please, Demi… don’t do this."
"I don't care," I say. "I'll be fine. She stole my mom’s peace of mind in her last moments on this earth. I’m stealing everything from this cunt. I know you’ve been wanting me to trust you guys and I do.
So now I'm asking for that same trust back. I need you to believe in me, believe I know what I’m doing. Are you in or out?"
"I’m in," Andre growls but I can hear the resistance in his voice.
"Damon?" I ask.
"I’m already disabling the panic alarm in the executive wing," he replies, the sound of furious typing filling the line. "If you’re going to grab her, you need the rest of security to stay away."
BING
There’s the elevator. I have seconds left before this kicks off and I’ve never felt calmer. "Here we go. Go live now.”
I take a deep breath, adjusting my wig, straightening the heart broach camera. Martha the runner is dead. It’s time for Blue to come out and play.
"Let’s go harpoon a whale," I whisper, and the door opens.