I built the system you stole and tried to sell back to me. You’re a thief who broke into the wrong house.”

Mercer gave a sharp nod. The MPs stepped forward, boots thudding. One took Daniel’s arms, twisting them behind his back, and the steel handcuffs clicked shut.

“You have the right to remain silent,” the MP began, as the civilian executives watched, frozen in horror.

Vanessa started to hyperventilate. She understood, all at once, that she was implicated — the fraud, the stolen secrets.

As an MP reached for her shoulder, Daniel did the unthinkable.

He wrenched his shoulder free for a fraction of a second, lunged back, grabbed Vanessa by the strap of her dress, and shoved her into the path of the MP — using her as a shield to bolt for the side exit.