“Where am I?” I croaked, my throat feeling like sandpaper.

“An old shipping terminal,” Derek said, opening the toolbox. “Nobody comes out here anymore.”

He pulled out a heavy steel wrench and weighed it in his hand.

“We are going to have a very long conversation about your father’s offshore estate, Clara,” he said.

He leaned in close, his breath warm against my cheek.

“And you are going to give me those decryption keys.”

Suddenly, a high-pitched beep shattered the silence of the empty warehouse.

In the pocket of Derek’s trousers, his mobile phone began to glow.

He frowned, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the device.

The screen illuminated his face, showing an incoming video call from an unknown number.

He swiped the screen to answer it and held it up.

A voice came through the speaker, distorted but instantly recognizable.

“Look up, Derek,” the voice said.

Derek stiffened, his eyes darting toward the dark rafters above us.

From the shadows of the ceiling, a red laser dot appeared on the concrete floor.

It began to slide slowly across the cold ground, moving closer to his shoe.