The Master Key to Skylight

Chapter 3 Relinquishing the Keys

The next morning, Alessandro brought Isabella into the underground control room.

The air-conditioning held the room at sixty-four degrees. Racks hummed behind the steel walls, and blue light from the monitors washed over the consoles.

The room smelled of ozone and cleaning solvent.

I had built every layer of it. Alessandro had never brought another person past the second security door, even when capos demanded proof that Skylight existed.

Isabella stopped inside the doorway and wrinkled her nose. “God, it’s so metallic in here. All these screens give me a headache.”

She pointed toward the ceiling. “Darling, after the wedding, I could make this my art studio. We’ll put in a huge skylight and move the equipment to a basement.”

I waited for Alessandro to tell her she was already underground. Every screen around her carried a Russo shipment, payment, or life.

He put an arm around her waist. “Whatever you want, *principessa*.”

My thumbnail bit into my finger. He had offered her my control room before she could even find the chair.

Then Isabella found my custom command chair, where I had spent more nights than in my bed. She ran two fingers over the headset and lifted it toward her ears.

“Is this what you wear when you watch over him?”

Alessandro pulled the chair out for her.

“Show her. She should know how the city breathes.”

She sat down, spun once, and smiled. “I like this spot.”

Alessandro bent over the chair and kissed her. The shipping grid kept updating behind them, blue routes sliding across Lake Michigan.

When he straightened, he looked at me. “Transfer the super-administrator access. I won’t tolerate jealous backdoors.”

I had built those firewalls from an empty server rack, cleaned his records, and severed the links between his enemies and their federal files.

Alessandro never glanced at the account manager. His eyes stayed on my face.

I turned to the console and opened the account manager.

`CREATE USER: Isabella_Russo`

`ASSIGN GROUP: Administrator`

`GRANT ACCESS LEVEL: Omega`

At the final prompt, I linked the Trojan to Isabella’s credentials. Her account would become its primary authenticator.

As soon as Skylight recognized her as the sole master account, the last lock would close. Removing her later would only tell the program that someone had tampered with it.

`EXECUTE.`

I pressed Enter. A confirmation tone sounded, and my operator tag, ‘Cerberus,’ disappeared from the main screen.

`ADMIN: ISABELLA RUSSO`

I stepped away. “It’s done.”

Alessandro drew Isabella out of the chair and kissed her hair. “Everything I have is yours now.”

Her name stayed on the screen after they left. I shut down the account manager and watched the Trojan settle into its new place beneath it.