Chapter 6 - Caught in the Net
Javier froze. The export progress bar was at 68%.
The office door swung open, and the overhead fluorescent lights flickered on, blinding Javier for a fraction of a second.
Standing in the doorway was Martha Collins, holding a stack of late-night paperwork, accompanied by a heavy-set private security guard carrying a flashlight.
Collins stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes locking onto Javier standing beside the open vault door with his diagnostic tool plugged into the secret server.
For a long three seconds, complete silence hung in the room.
"You," Collins said, her voice dropping all traces of her previous professional warmth, turning into a freezing venom. "You broke into my school."
"I found your truth, Martha," Javier said, standing his ground, deliberately stepping in front of the server drive to cover the blinking light of the progress bar.
The security guard drew his taser from his belt, taking a step forward. "Stay right where you are, sir! Put your hands on your head!"
"Hold on, Frank," Collins commanded, raising a hand. She looked at the open vault, then at Javier’s backpack and diagnostic tool. Her eyes narrowed as she calculated the immediate consequences.
"You are trespassing on private property, Mr. Morales," Collins said smoothly, stepping into the room and closing the door behind her. "You have committed multiple felonies tonight. Burglary, computer intrusion, destruction of private property. Do you have any idea what the legal system in this state does to people who break into private educational institutions?"
"I know what the legal system does to child abusers and the monsters who protect them," Javier answered, his voice terrifyingly calm. "I watched the tape, Martha. I watched Patricia choke my daughter and lift her off the floor by her collarbone. I saw all the other folders in this drive too. Nine years of footage. You recorded every bit of it."
Collins didn't deny it. She didn't flinch. Instead, a cold, calculating smile spread across her face.
"And who do you think anyone will believe?" Collins asked softly. "You are an emotionally unstable father who lost his wife, who couldn't handle his daughter's behavioral issues, and who broke into a school in the middle of the night in a frantic attempt to fabricate evidence. Frank here found you vandalizing our equipment."
She turned to the guard. "Frank, this man attacked you while you were conducting your nightly rounds. You had to use physical force to detain him."
The guard adjusted his grip on his baton, taking another step toward Javier.
Behind Javier’s back, the small handheld device gave a soft, silent double-vibration against his palm.
Export 100% Complete.
Javier instantly pulled the target drive from the server port, dropping it into his deep jacket pocket while pulling his hands up into a defensive posture.
"You think you control everything because you have money and a title," Javier said, backing away toward the large glass window facing the central courtyard. "But you forgot one thing about systems engineering, Martha."
"And what is that?" Collins sneered, gesturing for the guard to move in.
"Every system has a single point of failure," Javier said. "And tonight, it's you."
Javier didn't try to fight the guard. Instead, he grabbed a heavy oak chair from beside the conference table and smashed it with all his strength against the floor-to-ceiling plate glass window overlooking the inner courtyard.
The tempered glass shattered into a thousand glittering pieces with a thunderous crash that echoed across the entire dark campus.
May you like
The security guard lunged, but Javier slipped through the shattered frame, dropping six feet down onto the courtyard grass below. Sirens began to wail in the distance—the automated acoustic glass-break sensors had immediately tripped the citywide emergency alarm network.
Collins ran to the broken window, her face contorted in pure panic as she watched Javier disappear into the shadows of the night, holding the hard drive tight against his chest.
