His face was flushed, his expensive ski jacket stained with melted snow.

Vanessa walked in behind him, looking perfectly composed in a white fur coat.

She looked around the room, her eyes landing on Nathan.

“Where are the children, Nathan?” she asked, her voice cold.

“They’re safe,” Nathan said, standing straight.

“And they are out of your reach.”

Julian raised the gun, pointing it directly at Nathan’s forehead.

“We don’t need the kids,” Julian said.

“We just need the encryption bypass code.”

“The Swiss servers are waiting for the handshake.”

Vanessa walked to the desk and picked up a tablet.

“The progress bar stopped,” she said, tapping the screen with a manicured fingernail.

“Why did it stop, Nathan?”

“Because my wife built a two-factor physical biometric lock,” Nathan said.

“The final key requires my retinal scan at the main terminal.”

“If you kill me, the system wipes itself.”

“The data becomes completely useless.”

Julian cursed under his breath, looking at his sister.

“He’s lying,” Julian said.

“He’s not,” Vanessa said, her eyes narrowing.

“He’s too protective of his work to leave it unsecured.”