xwell Industries smelled

able. The screen cracked, a spiderweb fracture splitti

e trembling with a rage that made the veins

time stock ticker. MDI-Maxwell Defense Industries-

as the number one

s wiping sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief. "Just

l, pushed his glasses up his nose. He looked

e dry. "Floy is a product of... an affair. The Trust Committee won't acc

. She turned to the head of securit

looked down at his boots. "She's gone, Mrs. Maxwell. She dumped her pho

he looked at the caller ID-

d. "If we lose his backing

or bur

be, and his skin was scrubbed raw, but he

sitate. She walked

echoed lik

idi

ching his cheek. "She's crazy! She

pted, checking his watch, "the bank freezes thirty percent of our liqui

lian. "Turn New York upside down. Hire every PI in the

ng the city, Darcie wa

ing truck, wrapped in a stolen oversiz

nning away meant going back to the trailer park, where her stepmother

needed a

Estate. The guards waved it through. They were looking for

dows of the garden. She knew this house. She had spent the las

re the blind

he library. The room was massive, two stories

to the antique d

rantic bird in a cage. 'Calm down,' she told

keyhole, but for a seam. She had seen old Alfred, the butler, access it once, his movements

. She pressed her thumb to the scanner. Access

mpany's founding date, the stock ticker symbol converted to ASCII, the launch dates of their most famous missile systems. She closed her eyes, visualizing

ss the keypad. The fi

nic click echoe

er sli

t smelled of dust and history. The

y, looking for the clause she had memorized during her "grooming" l

n

just

e looked up, through the rain-str

oleum. Dark. Silent. It

t Ma

his company into an empire before a helicopter cr

y door han

velvet curtains, holding her

e picked up a remote

dolyn's face filled the screen. She looked

e sobbed. "She has been under so muc

Darcie

her palms until the skin brok

ned off the lights

ped out of

asn't the poor girl from the mountai

the contract

ouse down. And she was going