The VIP Landlord

Chapter 5 : Emergency Meeting in Room 303

Chapter 5: Emergency Meeting in Room 303

Mr. Henderson and the two technicians rushed up the emergency stairs without looking back. The sound of their hurried footsteps slowly faded, leaving Colter and Ines alone in the dark, stuffy underground corridor. The smell of burnt plastic from inside the incinerator still hung heavy in the air, but Colter’s mind was already focused entirely on the old lawyer’s final warning.

“We don’t have much time, Colter,” Ines said, sliding her tactical knife back into her coat pocket. “If Henderson’s firm is panicking, it means the assault team coming here isn’t just some amateur like the guy I killed upstairs.”

“We have to get the others in Room 303,” Colter replied, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. “Harlan Montgomery has the most secure communication system, and Linus needs to explain how the computer coordinates from our floor got leaked.”

They both ran up the stairs back to the third floor. The moment they reached the corridor, Colter went straight to Room 303’s door and knocked hard. This time he didn’t care about manners. The situation was already at full threat level.

The electronic door opened within seconds. Harlan Montgomery stood there with a completely calm expression, as if he’d already expected Colter to come to his room soon. Inside the lavish living room, Linus Floyd was already sitting on the leather sofa with a laptop on his knees. The young hacker’s face looked pale under the dim room lighting.

“Come in and lock the door, Colter,” Harlan ordered as he walked back to his desk covered in old files.

Colter shut the heavy mahogany door until the automatic lock clicked twice. He immediately turned to Linus, demanding an explanation. “Linus, Henderson said someone sent the firm’s confidential data to Interpol using coordinates from our floor. Was that you?”

“It wasn’t me, Colt! I swear to God, I didn’t send it!” Linus answered, his voice rising in panic. He turned his laptop screen toward Colter, showing a line of unstable network traffic graphs. “When I cut the power to the basement to help you guys earlier, I detected secondary cyber intrusion activity. Someone exploited a security gap while I was looping the corridor cameras.”

“So there’s a third party hacking your system from the outside?” Ines asked. She was now standing by the entrance, watching every corner of the room with alert eyes.

“Not from the outside, Ines. That’s the problem,” Linus swallowed hard, his trembling finger pointing to a red dot on the building’s digital network map. “The encrypted signal was sent from inside this apartment block. Someone in this building deliberately lured Interpol and the outside faction here tonight.”

At Linus’s explanation, the atmosphere in the room turned ice cold. Colter looked at the three VIP tenants in front of him one by one. Ines Mercer was an assassin hiding from her own organization. Linus Floyd was a federal fugitive. And Harlan Montgomery was a former minister with too many political enemies. None of them benefited from this sanctuary location being exposed to the world.

“If it wasn’t from any of your rooms, then where did the signal come from, Linus?” Colter asked, his voice growing heavier.

“Room 304,” Linus answered shortly, staring straight into Colter’s eyes.

Colter went silent for a moment, trying to remember the building inventory records his grandfather left behind. Room 304 was at the very end of the third-floor corridor, right next to the back emergency stairs. That room was supposed to be empty. No new tenant had been officially registered through Henderson’s firm since his grandfather’s death a month ago.

“That room is locked tight and the key is in my office, Linus. There’s no way anyone’s inside without my knowledge,” Colter said, rejecting the possibility.

“Physical keys can be forged, Colter, and electronic locks can be picked by anyone with the right equipment,” Harlan Montgomery cut in, placing his monocle glasses on the desk. The old man adjusted his sitting position and looked at Colter with a sharp gaze. “We have an intruder in our own house. Someone who knows this building’s structure exactly and wants to destroy the sanctuary your grandfather built.”

“Whoever is in Room 304 knows the outside faction is looking for Ines,” Colter said, stepping closer to Harlan’s desk. “They deliberately leaked Henderson’s data so the law firm couldn’t send security support to this building when the outside faction attacks.”

“A very clean isolation tactic,” Ines said with a fearless, sarcastic tone. “They’re keeping Henderson busy saving himself, so this place is left completely unprotected. How much time do we have before the assault team reaches the front gate, Linus?”

Linus typed a few lines of code on his keyboard, then looked at the digital clock in the corner of his laptop screen. “Based on surveillance van movements I tracked through the city street cameras I hacked, they’ll be here in less than fifteen minutes. They’re moving in three separate teams using black vans.”

Colter took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart. According to his grandfather’s will, his main job was to make sure not a single tenant in this building died or got arrested. If he failed to hold this place tonight, he wouldn’t just lose the inheritance. His own life would end at the hands of the outside faction — an organization notorious for never leaving witnesses alive.

“We can’t escape through the front. The main road is definitely being watched by their scouts,” Colter said, looking at all three tenants. “Our only option is to hold the building and use every secret security system my grandfather installed.”

“You want us to work with you, Kid?” Harlan Montgomery asked with a thin, dismissive smile. “We’re cold-blooded fugitives who don’t trust each other. What makes you think we’ll follow orders from an amateur manager like you?”

Colter stepped forward, placing both palms on Harlan’s desk, and stared directly into the former official’s eyes with a firmness he’d never shown before.

“Because if this place falls tonight, there won’t be another sanctuary in the world that can hide you from your enemies,” Colter answered slowly, with emphasis. “Ines knows how to fight. Linus knows how to control the building’s systems. And Mr. Montgomery knows how to read enemy tactics. If we don’t work together now, we’ll all end up in body bags before dawn.”

Harlan Montgomery fell silent, watching the sudden courage in the young man in front of him. In the corner, Ines Mercer slowly pushed herself off the wall. Meanwhile, Linus Floyd closed his laptop and stood up from the sofa.

“I like your offer, Colter,” Ines said, pulling a spare magazine from inside her coat. “So, what’s our landlord’s first order tonight?”

Colter turned to Linus, then pointed toward the Room 303 exit. “Linus, bring all internal security cameras back online using the emergency backup network that Henderson’s office can’t trace. I want you monitoring every movement in the corridors and outside the front gate.”

“You got it, Colt,” Linus answered, immediately heading out of the room toward his own workspace.

“Ines, come with me to Room 304,” Colter continued, reaching into his jacket pocket for the spare manual key. “We need to find out who the bastard is in there and stop their transmission before the first assault team breaches the lower gate.”

The moment Colter gripped the Room 303 doorknob to step out into the corridor, a loud explosion shook the building from the ground floor, vibrating all the way up to the third floor. It was followed by the sudden, piercing wail of the building’s fire alarm sirens tearing through the night.

The outside faction’s assault team had arrived faster than Linus estimated. They’d just blown the main apartment gate with a static charge bomb.

Colter turned back to Ines with a sharp look. “Looks like we need to change our plan right now, Ines.”