Chapter Thirty-Six
When the silo door burst open, Diana was crouched under one of the tables. Her scream was genuine as the fire extinguisher went careening past her and bashed into the wall.
She’d had barely enough time to set all the system clocks back to the correct time and disarm all the doors in the complex. She’d sent Pam an urgent text message telling her to restore the live feeds from the mill’s surveillance cameras. She needed to touch base with Ashley, but Jake’s returning nearly two hours ahead of schedule had thrown everything off. Her only hope was to keep Jake guessing.
“Daniel!” Jake cried as he burst into the silo. He stopped in his tracks. “Daniel?” He turned in a full circle, finally spotting Diana cowering under the table.
“Jake?” Diana crept out. “You’re alone? I thought . . . thank God it’s only you.” She stood, holding her hand to her throat and panting for breath. “I bolted the door. I was afraid—”
“Why the hell didn’t you let me in?”
“I couldn’t believe you’d be back so soon.”
“I caught an earlier flight.”
“I’m sorry. I thought it was a trick.”
“A trick? Couldn’t you hear me screaming? You crazy—” He stopped and looked around. “Where’s Daniel?”
“I thought you knew. He’s long gone.”
“What do you mean he’s gone?”
“Left hours ago.”
“Gone where?”
“I . . . I don’t know. But he’s not coming back. He said his dream’s been perverted. He’s starting over. Clean. To do that, he had to get away from me. From you.”
The blood left Jake’s face. “From me? No way.”
“I’m just telling you what he said.”
“He wouldn’t just take off.”
“See for yourself.” She pointed to the systems on the floor. “He took all the hard disks with him.” Not that Daniel would be able to use what was stored on them. Soon enough, he’d discover that all of the data had been encrypted.
Jake squatted by one of the servers and peered in at the empty slots. “Where are they?”
Diana held out her hands. “I told you. Daniel took them.”
“I don’t believe you.” Then his gaze swept the room. “Where did you hide them?”
Diana sank down in her chair. As Jake tore through the room, pulling open drawers and clearing shelves, she checked the surveillance feeds. She switched all the exterior cameras to night vision. The one overlooking the loading dock showed a human figure. It was Daniel, getting into the Hummer.
Jake looked everywhere, even inside the little refrigerator.
“Really, they’re not here,” Diana said.
“It makes no sense. Why would he leave when . . . ?”
“When you’re about to hit pay dirt?”
He gave her a cold stare. “Something like that.”
Jake went over to his workstation and toggled through the security camera feeds. Diana watched, her heart in her throat. Her plans depended on help arriving on schedule.
“I told you. He’s gone,” she said.
Jake grabbed her upper arm. “What did you say to him?”
She wrenched free. She had to be careful not to overplay her hand. “I just pointed out the obvious. That you and Daniel have different goals. He’s an idealist. And you . . . well, you’re not.”
“I do what it takes to get Daniel what he wants,” Jake said. “It’s not cheap, getting the wherewithal to save the world from Big Brother and all that shit that he’s into. He’s known that from the beginning.”
“From the beginning. And when was it that you started planning all of this?” She indicated the space around them.
Jake looked at Diana, eyes narrowed. “Does it matter?”
“It matters to me.”
He laughed. “Let’s just say it’s been a very long time.”
“Whose idea was it for Daniel to fake his own death?”
“I know you want me to say it was my idea. But it wasn’t.” Jake laughed again in that not-funny way. “I warned him you’d never buy that lame story.”
“He knew that I’d want to believe it.”
He gave her a pitying smile. “Then I’m sorry to have to tell you this. The accident was Daniel’s idea. You were there as a witness, and a means to an end after it.”
Even though Diana had figured that out for herself, her heart wrenched when she heard Jake being so brutally and casually dismissive.
Jake went on. “His dream was to disappear, live off the grid, and, like the man said, sow chaos. To do that, he needed to sever his ties. Daniel’s great at the vision thing. Not so good at tactics. So the details of the operation—that was more of a joint project.”
“So the whole idea was to set me up as a front? Whose idea was it to use the trust I’d earned to hack my client’s data?”
“I’m sure you can guess the answer to that. I don’t give a shit about their frickin’ data.”
“Right. All you care about is fleecing them after the hack. That’s your department.”
“Accounts receivable.” Jake brushed his fingers and thumb together. “You’d be surprised how much people are willing to pay to protect their reputations. Fortunately, less than it costs to finance this operation.”
Diana said, “More than a million and a half, just to buy this place.”
If Jake was surprised that she knew, he didn’t show it. “Seemed like a bargain at the time. Still does.”
“Must have set you back even more to make it livable.”
“Fences. Plumbing. Wiring. Would you believe it costs more to blast potholes than it would have cost to build an access road, brand-new. Though in New Hampshire it’s easy to find folks willing to do it off the books.”
“Was it too risky to put the property in your own name? Certainly you couldn’t put it in Daniel’s.”
“When people see that much cash, they don’t ask questions. Besides, you gave me power of attorney.”
“I must have been delusional.”
“That and more. For months. Neither of us realized . . . we didn’t anticipate how incapacitated you’d be.” Was that a flicker of contrition? Jake looked away. “Yeah, that took us by surprise. Made things much more complicated than they needed to be.”
As Jake glanced back over to where the missing hard disks would have been, his fists clenched. Quickly Diana checked the outside surveillance feeds. Still nothing.
“You’re actually a lot like Daniel,” Jake went on. “You’ve got that idealistic, visionary thing going on but you don’t want to get your hands dirty making it happen.”
“So you got them dirty for me?”
Jake stared back at her. “Filthy. And just try proving that you didn’t know what was going on. Your virtual fingerprints are everywhere. I made sure of that.” He gave her an affable smile. “By the way, great meeting this afternoon. Excellent presentation. You had them eating out of our hands.”
“Glad you enjoyed it. Because that’s the last performance I’m going to give. It’s over.”
He held her gaze. “You think? This is my show, not yours. It goes on with or without Daniel and with or without you.”
“But will it go on without you?” she said. Finally Jake blinked. “Because Daniel did one more thing before he ran off. He called the police. You’re wanted for kidnapping. Assault. Extortion.”
Jake’s laugh sounded empty.
“You’re lucky you caught an earlier flight,” Diana went on. “The police were at the airport, waiting to arrest you when you got off the plane. Daniel didn’t know you caught an earlier flight. They’re on their way here right now.”
“You’re making that up.” He grabbed Diana by the arm and hauled her over to where he could tab through the surveillance screens.
“You think so? Why don’t you just stick around and find out?” She looked past him to the doorway, where the metal door hung from a single hinge.
Jake spun around. The doorway was empty. He squeezed her arm. “What the hell are you playing at? I told Daniel to cut his losses. Too bad he didn’t—” He froze. Distant scuffling footsteps grew louder, more distinct.
Jake’s fingers loosened on her arm as one police officer came into view. There was another one behind him. And another. Ashley brought up the rear.
Diana couldn’t help smiling. Ashley was wearing the second outfit—Nadia’s leather jacket and jeans. She rushed over to Diana and hugged her. Then she turned and pointed to Jake.
“That’s him! That’s the man who kidnapped me. He drugged me and held me here for a week. God knows what he did to me while I was unconscious.”
“You crazy bitch,” Jake said. “No one did anything to you while you were unconscious. And it wasn’t me who kidnapped you.”
“There’s plenty of evidence,” Diana said to the police officer in the lead, “upstairs in the other building. I can show you the place where my sister was held. The drugs she was given. There is surveillance footage that shows this man drugging her. And video that shows him grabbing her at Copley Square.”
“I swear to God,” Jake said, holding up his hands and backing away, “none of this was my idea. The man you want is Daniel Schechter.” One of the officers grabbed his wrist and cuffed it, then turned him around and cuffed both hands behind his back.
Jake scowled at Diana. “Tell them. Tell them about Daniel. He was here. With us. This whole setup was his idea.”
“If he was here, then his fingerprints would be,” Diana said. “Go ahead,” she said to one of the officers. “Dust the place. You’ll find his.” She jerked a thumb at Jake. “And you’ll find mine. But I’m quite sure you won’t find this person Daniel’s.”
Though she no longer needed a costume or an alternate identity to make her feel powerful and resilient, Diana grabbed Nadia’s jacket from the floor. She slipped it on. She loved that soft leather, and there was nothing quite like clothing that was custom made.
“Besides, how could Daniel Schechter have had anything to do with this? He’s dead. Don’t you remember?” she said, her gaze locked on Jake. “And I have his ashes to prove it.”