Daniel came home early and saw his mother nearly frozen on the security camera.

The next forty-eight hours became a waiting game.

We hid in the cottage. No phone. No internet. No connection to the outside world. Daniel watched the road. I watched the sea. Every hour felt like a day. Every shadow looked like an approaching car. Every distant engine made our hearts race.

"Robert will realize something is wrong," Daniel said late the first night. "When nothing happens. When no news breaks. He will grow impatient. Suspicious. Julian will tell him the drive was destroyed. But Robert will not fully believe him. He will begin to question everything."

"Especially Julian," I said.

"Especially Julian," Daniel agreed. "Because Robert trusts no one. He believes everyone is capable of betrayal. And Julian... has betrayed us once. Robert will wonder... if he betrayed him too."

On the second afternoon, cars appeared on the road leading to the cottage.

Daniel pulled me back from the window. "They are searching house to house. He is desperate."

"They will find us," I said.

"Not here," Daniel said. He helped me into the small root cellar beneath the floorboards. "Stay quiet. Stay hidden. No matter what happens. If I do not come for you... wait until dark. Then walk toward the lighthouse. Elias left instructions."

"Daniel, no—"

"Promise me," he said fiercely. "Protect yourself. That is the most important thing."

I nodded, tears stinging my eyes. He kissed my forehead. Closed the hatch above me. Covered it with an old rug.

Minutes later, the door burst open.

I heard heavy footsteps. Voices. Robert's voice. Cold. Sharp.

"Where are they?"

"I do not know," Daniel said. His voice steady. Defiant.

Robert struck him. I heard the blow. Heard Daniel's grunt of pain. My hands pressed hard over my mouth to muffle a cry.

"Where is the evidence?" Robert demanded. "Julian said you kept a copy. Where is it?"

"It is gone," Daniel said. "Elias threw it into the sea. You saw it yourself."

Robert laughed. A harsh, bitter sound.

"Julian also said Elias sent a signal before you boarded him. A partial upload. Is that true?"

Silence.

"ANSWER ME!" Robert roared.

"It was incomplete," Daniel said. "Half the files were corrupted. Useless. Even if it sent... there is nothing there that hurts you."

Robert fell silent. Thinking. Calculating.

"Julian said the beacon was locked to my IP," Robert said slowly. "That once it finished transmitting... every crime traces back to me personally. Is that true?"

Daniel did not speak.

Robert screamed in rage. Furniture crashed. Glass shattered.

"JULIAN!"

A second voice stepped forward. Julian.

"He is lying," Julian said quickly. "It was bluff. Elias had no time. I saw it myself."

"You saw it?" Robert asked dangerously. "Or did you help him set it up?"

Julian's voice wavered. "I served you faithfully. I told you where they were. I told you about the boat—"

"And perhaps you told Elias too," Robert said softly. "Perhaps you played both sides until the very end."

"I did not!" Julian cried.

Then a gunshot.

I froze. My heart hammering so hard I thought they would hear it beneath the floor.

Robert spoke again. Calm. Merciless.

"Julian served me well. But he became a liability. A man who betrays once... will betray again."

He turned back to Daniel.

"The upload completes in less than six hours," Robert said. "If what Julian said was true... my name appears everywhere. If Julian lied... then I still have time to disappear. So tell me the truth, Daniel. Is the upload real?"

Daniel said nothing.

Robert sighed.

"Take him," he said to his men. "Bind him. Bring him to the boat. We sail out to the buoy. We wait. And when the deadline passes... either I am ruined... or I return and finish what I started."

"What about the woman?" one of the men asked.

"Search the cottage," Robert said. "Burn it to the ground. If she is hiding inside... she burns with it."

I heard them drag Daniel away. Heard cars start. Drive off. Then footsteps above me. Moving furniture. Ripping up floorboards elsewhere in the house. But they did not look beneath the rug. They left. And minutes later, smoke began to seep through the cracks above my head.

The cottage was burning.

Daniel was gone. Julian was dead. Robert was sailing out to the buoy to wait. And I sat in darkness, counting the minutes until the upload completed. Praying Elias had succeeded. Praying Robert destroyed himself with his own arrogance.

And waiting.