She Wore No Jewelry to My $10 Million Gala—Then She Whispered, “There’s Someone You Haven’t Noticed.”

Midnight arrived with a howling blizzard that blanketed Chicago in white silence.

While Finn’s team mobilized toward Navy Pier in unmarked tactical vans, Mara and I executed a high-altitude HALO parachute jump from a private transport plane, descending silently through the storm clouds onto the helipad of Wexler Tower.

We landed like phantoms on the snow-covered roof, releasing our chutes and drawing our silenced weapons.

Using Sterling’s cloned security keycard, Mara bypassed the rooftop biometric locks. We slipped down the maintenance stairwell, moving with absolute silence past the security cameras that Finn was remotely looping from the mobile command unit.

When we reached the executive suite on the 80th floor, the massive double doors of the server room slid open with a soft hiss.

The room was vast, lined with towering server racks bathed in pulsing blue LED lights. At the center stood the primary master terminal.

"I'll upload the counter-virus," Mara said, plugging her portable deck into the main port. "Cover the hallway."

"You've got three minutes," I said, keeping my rifle trained on the entrance.

The progress bar on the screen began to fill: 15%... 30%... 50%...

Suddenly, the blue lights throughout the entire room turned a violent, flashing crimson.

A loud, metallic clank echoed through the chamber as heavy titanium blast doors slammed down over the exits, sealing us inside.

"It's a trap!" Mara shouted, frantically trying to abort the sequence.

A slow, mocking applause echoed from the overhead intercom system.

"Did you really think it would be that easy, Dante?"

A tall, broad-shouldered man with a scar running across his left eye stepped out from behind a reinforced ballistic glass partition on the upper mezzanine. Behind him stood Donald Wexler and half a dozen mercenaries armed with heavy submachine guns.

It was Victor Vance. The ghost had returned.

"Ten years ago, I killed your father because he was too stubborn to see the future," Vance sneered down at us, his voice dripping with venom. "And now, you've brought me the only thing I was missing—Ms. Vale and her decryption keys."

Vance smiled coldly at Mara. "Did you really think I didn't know you were tracking my money, Mara? I let you find the files. I let you lead him straight into my vault. You were always my best student... but you always let your emotions blind you."

I looked at Mara. For a second, a flicker of doubt tried to creep into my mind, but when I saw the sheer, unadulterated fury in her eyes, I knew Vance was lying to sow discord between us.

"She didn't lead me here to help you, Vance," I shouted, raising my weapon. "She led me here to bury you."