“That is you, Emily.”

I picked up the pen.

The plastic felt cold against my fingers.

I looked at Nathan.

“Do it,” he said softly.

I leaned forward to sign the document.

But before the pen could touch the paper, the large screen on the wall went black.

The live stock feed vanished.

In its place, a red warning light began to flash on the console in the center of the table.

The system was being overridden from an outside source.

The speaker in the ceiling crackled.

A voice, distorted by static but unmistakably Richard’s, filled the room.

“You think you can lock me out?” Richard said.

“I built the security protocols for this entire network.”

“If I go down, I am taking every single account with me.”

The screen flashed again.

A countdown timer appeared on the display.

Four minutes and fifty-nine seconds.

The board members began to shout, some of them standing up from their chairs.

“What is he doing?” Eleanor Vance cried.

“He’s wiping the servers,” Mr. Hayes said, his voice losing its calm.

“He has the master key.”