My Dad is the CEO who wants me Dead

The server room

The elevator climbed slowly. Too slowly.

Liam watched the numbers tick up, each floor feeling like an eternity. His hands were sweating inside his gloves. His heart was pounding so loud he was sure someone would hear it.

Forty-third floor. Forty-fourth. Forty-fifth.

The elevator dinged at forty-six, and Liam tensed. But nobody got on. The doors closed again, and the car kept moving.

Forty-seventh.

The doors slid open.

Liam stepped out into a hallway that looked nothing like the rest of the building. No cubicles. No offices. Just a long, sterile corridor with white walls and bright lights.

And a massive security door at the end.

Liam pushed his cart forward, trying to look casual. His eyes scanned the hallway, counting cameras. Three. All pointing at the door.

He'd expected that.

What he hadn't expected was the guard standing right in front of it.

"You're not supposed to be here," the guard said. He was big, with a shaved head and dead eyes. The kind of guy who'd been hired for his muscles, not his personality.

Liam kept his head down. "Sorry. Just cleaning. They told me to do the whole floor tonight."

"Nobody cleans this floor." The guard stepped closer. "Who sent you?"

Liam's mind raced. "Uh. The night supervisor? Frank? He said—"

"There's no Frank." The guard's hand moved toward his belt. "You're coming with me."

Liam reacted without thinking.

He grabbed the mop from his cart and swung it like a baseball bat. The handle connected with the guard's head with a sickening crack. The guard stumbled, and Liam hit him again.

The big man went down hard.

Liam stood there, breathing heavily, staring at the body on the floor. His hands were shaking.

He'd just knocked out a guy. A real guy. With a mop.

"Liam?" Maya's voice crackled in his earpiece. "What happened? I heard something."

"I'm fine," Liam whispered. "But I'm on a timer now. How long until someone notices he's missing?"

"Twelve minutes. Maybe less if there's a sweep."

"Great." Liam stepped over the guard's body and approached the security door.

It was massive. Steel. No visible handle.

But there was a scanner on the wall. Retinal. Fingerprint.

Liam pulled out his phone and checked the photo Elena had sent him. The face of Julian's head of security. The man who'd been in the room when Mike died.

Marcus Webb.

Liam held the phone up to the retinal scanner. The screen flashed green. Then he pressed a piece of tape to the fingerprint scanner, the tape coated with a copy of Marcus's print he'd lifted from his coffee cup three years ago.

Green again.

The door clicked open.

Liam pushed it wide and stepped inside.

The server room was a cathedral of technology.

Racks of servers stretched up to the ceiling, blinking lights in every color. The hum of cooling fans filled the air, a constant white noise that made the room feel alive.

Liam walked between the racks, his eyes scanning for Julian's private server. It would be separate from the rest, isolated, locked behind even more security.

There.

In the back corner, a single server stood alone. No lights. No blinking. Just a black box that looked like nothing special.

Liam walked up to it and pulled out the USB drive Maya had given him. It was loaded with a program designed to bypass Julian's encryption.

He plugged it in.

The screen on the server flickered to life.

Access Granted.

Liam started scrolling through the files. Financial records. Transaction logs. Emails to politicians and judges. Names of people Julian had paid off, people he'd threatened, people he'd killed.

It was all there.

And then Liam found something that made his blood freeze.

A file marked ATLAS - ORIGINAL CREATOR.

He opened it.

Inside was a single document. A confession.

I, Julian Croft, did orchestrate the accident that killed Elena Voss. I did frame Liam Voss for crimes he did not commit. I did steal the Project Atlas code and destroy all evidence of its true origin.

Liam stared at the screen.

Julian had been behind it all. The accident that supposedly killed Elena. The frame job that made Liam disappear. Everything.

But there was something else. At the bottom of the document, a list of names. People who'd helped Julian. People who'd been paid off.

And one name that made Liam's heart stop.

Maya Chen.

No.

No, that couldn't be right. Maya was on their side now. She'd proven herself. She'd almost died for them.

But the document was dated three years ago. The same year Maya had been hired.

Liam read the text again. Maya Chen - Recruited. Task: Infiltrate Elysian Tech and identify anyone with knowledge of Project Atlas.

Liam felt like he was going to be sick.

She'd been a plant from the beginning. Everything she'd done, everything she'd said, it had all been part of the plan.

And the tracker in her pocket? The one Julian had supposedly planted?

What if she'd put it there herself?

Liam's earpiece crackled. "Liam?" Maya's voice. "Liam, what's going on? You've been quiet for too long."

Liam didn't answer.

"Liam?" Her voice was getting worried now. "Talk to me. What did you find?"

Liam reached up and pulled the earpiece out.

He couldn't trust anything she said. Not anymore.

---

The elevator doors opened, and Liam stepped out into the lobby.

He'd taken the stairs the whole way down, avoiding cameras, avoiding guards. His body was screaming, but he didn't care.

He needed to get out of this building. He needed to think.

The lobby was empty. No guards. No security.

Something was wrong.

Liam walked toward the main exit, his footsteps echoing in the silence.

And then the lights went out.

Liam froze. "What—"

A voice came from the darkness. Calm. Amused.

"Hello, Janitor. Fancy meeting you here."

Liam's blood went cold.

The lights flickered back on, and Julian Croft was standing right in front of him.

Behind him, a dozen armed men.

And behind them, with tears streaming down her face, was Maya.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed. "I didn't have a choice. He was going to kill my sister. He was—"

Julian raised a hand, and she fell silent.

"You know," Julian said, walking toward Liam with slow, deliberate steps. "You were really hard to find. I have to admire your dedication. Five years of hiding. Five years of pretending to be nothing. That takes real commitment."

Liam's jaw tightened. "What do you want?"

"I want the code." Julian stopped a foot away. "I know you have it. Mike gave it to you before he died. And I know you're the one who created it. So here's the deal: you give me the code, and I let Maya live."

Liam looked at Maya. At her terrified eyes.

He thought about the document he'd found. The one that said she'd been recruited three years ago.

But then he thought about the way she'd hugged him when he was bleeding. The way she'd insisted on helping him. The way she'd looked at him like he was actually worth something.

"You're lying," Liam said. "You threatened her sister. That's why she did what she did."

Julian smiled. "Oh, I know. I've been using that girl for years. She's very easy to manipulate. But that doesn't change the facts, does it? She still betrayed you."

Liam looked at Maya one more time.

Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out the USB drive.

"Here," he said. "Take it."

Julian's eyes lit up.

But before he could grab it, Liam threw the drive across the room. It clattered against the far wall.

"Get it," Julian snarled.

Every guard turned to look at the drive.

Liam used the distraction to tackle Maya. They hit the floor hard, and he covered her body with his just as the first bullet whizzed past his ear.

"RUN!" he shouted.

They scrambled to their feet and bolted for the door.