A metal object struck the floor.
Officer Reyes shouted, “Stay where you are.”
The service van engine started.
Headlights flooded the bay.
Voss had reached the driver’s seat.
The van moved toward the loading exit.
The briefcase remained on the desk, but the encrypted drive was gone.
Voss had taken it.
Police vehicles blocked the outer cargo road.
The van stopped before reaching the exit.
Voss reversed.
The rear of the van struck a luggage cart.
Metal crashed loudly.
Olivia stayed behind a support column.
Reyes and the other officers surrounded the vehicle.
“Turn off the engine.”
Voss looked through the windshield.
He held the encrypted drive in one hand.
The transfer had not completed.
But if he destroyed the drive, Harrison Aerospace could lose years of work.
George had kept no full duplicate copy outside the secure system. The device contained changes he had personally made during the previous week.
Voss opened the driver’s door.
He stepped out slowly.
“Back away,” Reyes ordered.
Voss held the drive over a floor drain.
“You come closer, it goes into the water channel.”
The rain outside fed directly into the cargo drainage system.
Once dropped, the device could be carried beneath the runway.
Reyes stopped.
“Put it down.”
Voss looked toward Olivia.
“Tell them to let me leave.”
Olivia stared at him.
“Why would they listen to me?”
“Because George listened to you.”
“You do not know that.”
“He stopped a board meeting for you.”
“He stopped it because he was sick.”
Voss laughed once.
“No. He was supposed to approve the Riverside project tonight. Billions of dollars. Thousands of jobs. That drive decides where it happens.”
Olivia looked at the object in his hand.
“What do you mean?”
“The navigation system will be tested at whichever airport receives the research center. George’s board wanted Riverside. I had buyers who wanted the project moved overseas.”
Officer Reyes glanced at the nearby officers.
Voss continued.
“I was going to copy the plans, return the briefcase, and disappear.”
“You stole from the man who spared you,” Olivia said.
His expression changed.
“He did not spare me. He humiliated me.”
“He let you leave without prison.”
“He destroyed my career.”
“You did that.”
The words came out quietly.
Voss looked at her.
Olivia stepped from behind the column.
Reyes raised one hand.
“Stay back.”
Olivia stopped several feet away.
She remembered Dalton telling her she had no authority.
She remembered Voss calling her the cleaning girl.
She looked at the drain beneath his hand.
“You think taking that drive makes you important.”
Voss’s eyes narrowed.
“You know nothing about importance.”
“I know the old man you blame was lying on the floor, and you walked past him to steal his briefcase.”
“He ruined me.”
“You saw him helpless and chose yourself.”
Voss’s hand tightened around the drive.
“You did the same thing,” he said. “You helped him because you wanted something.”
Olivia shook her head.
“I did not know his name.”
“Everyone wants something.”
“I wanted him to keep breathing.”
The cargo bay became silent except for rain striking the open loading door.
Voss looked at her reflective vest, work pants, and worn sneakers.
“You’re going to lose your job anyway.”
“Maybe.”
“Then why protect these people?”
Olivia glanced at the police officers.
Then at George’s briefcase.
“I’m not protecting a company.”
She pointed toward the drive.
“You said that system helps planes land safely.”
Voss said nothing.
“My brother is flying for the first time next month,” she continued. “A school trip to Chicago. There will be families on those planes. Children. People who will never know your name or mine.”
Her voice remained steady.
“You’re willing to risk all of them because you’re angry.”
Voss looked down at the drain.
Olivia took one slow step closer.
Reyes watched carefully.
“George made you feel small,” Olivia said. “So now you want everyone else to feel powerless too.”
Voss’s face tightened.
“You know nothing about me.”
“I know what you did tonight.”
He raised the drive.
Reyes shifted her stance.
Olivia stopped.
“If you destroy it, they will remember you as a thief.”
Voss stared at her.
“If you hand it over, you still have one chance to be remembered as the man who stopped before it was too late.”
For several seconds, no one moved.
The van engine idled behind him.
Rainwater flowed through the drain.
Voss’s hand slowly lowered.
Then a sound came from the equipment room.
A second man emerged.
He wore a cargo contractor jacket and held a metal bar.
He struck the nearest officer from behind.
Chaos broke the silence.
Reyes turned.
Voss moved toward the drain.
Olivia saw his hand open.
She stepped forward and caught the encrypted drive before it fell.
Her knee struck the concrete.
The device almost slipped from her fingers.
She closed both hands around it.
Voss grabbed her arm.
Reyes turned back and pulled him away.
The second man tried to reach the van but was stopped by the other officers.
No one fired a weapon.
The struggle lasted only seconds.
Then both men were on the floor, restrained.
Olivia remained kneeling near the drain.
The drive was pressed against her chest.
Reyes approached.
“Are you hurt?”
Olivia looked at her arm.
A red mark had formed where Voss grabbed her.
“I’m okay.”
She handed over the drive.
Reyes held it carefully.
“You just saved the project.”
Olivia shook her head.
“I caught something.”
“You did more than that.”
The laptop still showed fifty-three percent.
The transfer had stopped.
Harrison Aerospace technicians later confirmed that no complete files had been sent.