The Next Billionaire

Chapter 5: A Date with Fire

Frank stared at the photo in his trembling hand. Ella’s image, captured from a distance—her walking to her car, unaware she was being watched. The message below it wasn’t a warning. It was a promise.

“You unlock secrets. We unlock people.”

They were watching him. And worse—they were watching her.

Frank's heartbeat thundered in his chest. He grabbed his phone and dialed Ella, his fingers shaky.

“Pick up… come on, pick up—”

She answered on the third ring. “Frank?”

“Ella, listen carefully. Don’t go anywhere alone. Lock your doors. Call security at the hospital and stay with your dad.”

Her tone shifted instantly. “What happened?”

“They left a message. They're threatening you.”

There was a pause. Then Ella replied, calm but firm. “Where are you?”

“At my apartment—”

“I’m coming to get you.”

“No—”

But she had already ended the call.

Frank paced in tight circles, trying to figure out the next step. He scanned the envelope again, but it was clean—no fingerprints, no identifiers. These people weren’t amateurs.

Someone had targeted Winston for the T9Space code. Now that Frank had cracked it, the heat had shifted.

The knock on his door came softer than expected.

He flinched, approached slowly, and looked through the peephole.

Ella.

He yanked the door open.

“You shouldn’t have come—”

“Get in,” she said. “Now.”

Frank hesitated, then obeyed. The car was parked with the engine still running, her security driver posted at the wheel. He climbed in and shut the door just as a motorcycle rounded the corner… too slow. Too quiet.

Frank stared out the rear window.

The bike disappeared.

“They know where I live now,” he said.

Ella pulled off her jacket. “Then you’re not going back there.”

---

Meanwhile, in a dark basement beneath a derelict warehouse on the edge of town, Mr. Red Glove reviewed surveillance footage on a loop. Frank talking to Ella. Frank entering the hospital. Frank cracking the code.

He paused on a still frame: Frank standing behind the CEO during the emergency board meeting.

“Ambitious,” he said aloud. “But reckless.”

He turned to his phone and typed a message:
Phase 2 approved. Target: Sutton. Contingency: Leverage the girl.

A minute later, a reply came in:
Confirmed. Operatives already inside.

---

At Wrenford’s private estate, now under strict lockdown, Agent Mia Caldwell had set up a mobile command station. She watched live feeds from street cams, drones, and bodycams worn by field agents. Every angle monitored.

She spotted Frank and Ella arriving and ordered the gate to be opened.

“I hope you know what you’ve gotten yourself into,” she told Frank as he stepped out.

“I didn’t ask for this.”

“No one does,” she said. “But when the world breaks, someone has to fix it.”

Frank followed her into the estate’s secure control room. A massive wall of screens illuminated the darkened space.

“You cracked the T9Space code,” Caldwell said. “Do you know what you actually unlocked?”

Frank shook his head. “Not fully. But it felt like… more than a financial key.”

Caldwell nodded grimly. “T9Space isn’t just code. It’s an access protocol. It opens more than assets—it opens identities, ghost accounts, black ops budgets, surveillance systems.”

Frank's eyes widened.

“You mean—”

“Yes,” she said. “WrenTech was sitting on a backdoor to a global data vault. Someone embedded it into the architecture years ago. Corbin knew. But someone even higher than him wants it now.”

Frank felt the gravity settle over him like lead.

“I didn’t sign up for this.”

“Too late,” Caldwell said. “You’re the only one who can keep the door shut—or open it the right way.”

---

Night fell hard over the estate.

Ella sat with Frank in the guest quarters, her eyes distant. He could see she hadn’t processed everything yet.

“I hate that you’re in this,” she said quietly.

Frank leaned forward. “Ella… this whole time, I thought I was nothing. A janitor. A nobody. But maybe that’s why they didn’t see me coming.”

She looked at him. “You were never a nobody.”

There was a silence—warm and full of tension. And for a moment, both leaned closer.

Then—

A thunderous boom shattered the night.

The east wing of the estate erupted in flames.

“Get down!” Frank shouted, throwing Ella to the floor as glass exploded inward. Alarms screamed. Security ran in all directions.

Smoke rolled into the hallway. Fire licked the walls.

Agent Caldwell’s voice came through the intercom: “Breach! All units! Secure the CEO and the daughter! Get Sutton out alive!”

Frank pulled Ella to her feet.

They sprinted through the hallway as flames clawed at the wood. Behind them, masked intruders in tactical black breached the shattered windows, weapons drawn.

Shots fired.

Frank ducked, yanking Ella behind a pillar. “This way—!”

They tore through the back exit as two security guards engaged the attackers.

Gunfire rang out.

Frank kicked open a maintenance door and pulled her into a narrow underground passage.

“What is this?” she gasped.

He glanced around. “Service tunnels. I saw them in the floor plans when I was cleaning. They’re old—lead to the docks.”

“You memorized the floor plans?” she asked.

“Old habit,” he said. “I never liked surprises.”

They burst out into the night air at the docks.

A boat was waiting—a dark silhouette humming low in the water.

But as they approached—

A flashlight beam cut through the fog.

“Don’t move,” a voice said.

Frank raised his hands slowly.

Three figures stepped into view.

In the middle—was Mr. Red Glove.

And beside him… with a gun trained on Frank…
was the estate’s own head of security.

To be continued…