I kept my eyes glued to the phone screen, trying to type as the car bounced over the gravel driveway.

“The encryption key he’s using is rotating,” I said, my voice tight. “Every thirty seconds, it changes the password.”

“Use the override code I gave you last month,” Adrian said, steering the car down the winding driveway of his estate. “The one for the emergency shutdown.”

“That will lock out everyone, including us,” I said.

“Do it,” Adrian said. “We can’t let those files disappear.”

I tapped the screen, entering the long string of alphanumeric characters.

The screen paused.

A loading wheel spun slowly.

*ERROR: Access denied. Override blocked by active administrator.*

I stared at the screen in disbelief.

“It’s not working,” I said. “He anticipated the override.”

“Who did?” Adrian asked.

“Arthur didn’t write this code,” I said, looking at the syntax of the error message. “This is a custom-built block. Someone else is helping him.”

“Julian?” Adrian asked.

“No,” I said, my heart dropping. “This is the signature of the security firm we hired last week. The ones who set up the new firewall.”