Chapter 18 · Three Days Too Late

The security office smells like burnt coffee and something dead in the walls. I'm three drives into the hotel's backup system when the lights cut out.

Not a flicker. Just gone.

"Mara." Elias's voice comes through my phone, clipped. "You need to leave. Now."

I don't look up from the screen. The progress bar says forty seconds. "Almost done."

"They know you're there."

"Who's they?"

He doesn't answer. That's answer enough.

The backup files are split across six drives, all of them jury-rigged into a tower that looks like it survived a small fire. Nina found the access codes in a dead clerk's email—turns out the hotel kept recording even after the city condemned it. Three months of footage. My sister went missing eight weeks ago.

The math doesn't feel good.

Thirty seconds.

Footsteps in the hallway. Not the uneven shuffle of squatters. Clean, measured. Two sets.

"Mara."

"I heard you the first time." I jam the last drive into my bag. The screen flashes: COPY INCOMPLETE. "Shit."

"Leave it."

"It's the only proof—"

"It's not worth your life."

I hit resume. Twenty seconds.

The door handle turns. Locked, but that won't stop anyone who knows what they're doing.