Chapter 7 - The Desperate Move
That evening, Vanessa didn't sign the papers.
Instead, her envy drove her to make one final, reckless gamble.
At 9:00 PM, my phone alerted me to a security breach at the university's engineering research center—where the original servers containing NovaTech's raw prototype code were still stored prior to the final corporate migration.
I immediately opened my tablet security feed.
The security cameras inside the server lab showed two figures wearing dark hoodies, using a stolen keycard to gain access to the main rack room. One of them was holding a heavy industrial magnet and a bottle of high-grade solvent, clearly intending to physically destroy the primary hardware drives.
Even through the dark hood, I recognized the silver heels Vanessa was still wearing from her afternoon video shoot. She had brought along one of her desperate ex-boyfriends to help her sabotage my work.
She truly believed that if she destroyed my physical server drives, she would destroy NovaTech, invalidating my contract with Meridian and saving her from her own legal doom.
What she didn't know was that I was watching her in high-definition real-time.
I clicked a single button on my phone, opening the direct line to the University Campus Police and the City Department.
"This is Claire Miller, Chief Technology Strategist at Meridian Dynamics," I said calmly into the phone. "I am currently monitoring a live felony breaking-and-entering in progress at the campus engineering facility. The suspects are attempting to destroy high-value corporate property."
"Units are en route, Ms. Miller," the dispatcher replied instantly. "Response time is under two minutes."
On my screen, I watched Vanessa unscrewing the back panel of the main server rack, her hands trembling with panicked urgency.
"Hurry up!" her ex-boyfriend hissed on the audio feed. "If we get caught here, we're going to prison!"
"Shut up!" Vanessa yelled back, her voice echoing in the empty lab. "If I destroy this, she loses her leverage! She won't have anything to hold over me!"
She raised the heavy industrial magnet, preparing to drag it across the magnetic drives.
Suddenly, the red emergency lights flashed throughout the hallway outside. The heavy doors burst open, and four armed police officers flooded into the server room, firearms drawn.
"POLICE! DROP THE EQUIPMENT! HANDS IN THE AIR NOW!"
Vanessa shrieked, dropping the magnet onto the concrete floor. She stumbled backward, tripping over her own silver heels and crashing hard against the server rack before falling into a heap on the ground.
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"Get down on the ground! Do not move!"
The camera captured every second of it: Vanessa crying hysterically, face-down on the cold linoleum floor, as steel handcuffs were clicked tightly around her wrists.
