The Silent Protection of the Most Powerful Man in Chicago
“Adrian, do not go out there,” I said.
I did not look up from the screen.
“Keep working, Emily,” he said.
A heavy fist wrapped against the driver-side window.
The glass did not shatter.
It was reinforced, but the dull thud vibrated through the frame of the SUV.
I blocked the port Cole was using to access the Chicago server.
The deletion progress halted at forty-nine percent.
A warning message flashed on my screen: *External attempt to bypass firewall detected.*
“He is trying to reroute through an offshore server in Panama,” I said.
“Cut the Panama gateway,” Adrian commanded.
“If I do that, we lose the live feed to our shipping vessels in the Atlantic,” I said.
“Do it anyway,” he said.
“We can get the ships back. We cannot get this data back.”
I struck the enter key.
I executed the command to sever the international gateway.
The tablet screen went black for two agonizing seconds.
Then, the deletion progress bar vanished.
A green notification box popped up: *Files secured. Directory locked.*
“I got it,” I breathed.
I leaned back against the leather seat, exhaling slowly.