The facilities team had done excellent work. Everything looked pristine. Marcus was about to leave when something made him look up at the lighting rig. Years of maintenance work had trained his eyes to spot irregularities, subtle misalignments that suggested problems waiting to happen. One of the stage lights looked off center, its mounting bracket slightly twisted.
He found a ladder and climbed up to inspect it. What he discovered made his blood run cold. The safety cable, the backup that prevented lights from falling if the main mount failed, was frayed nearly through. Not from age or wear. The damage was too clean, too deliberate.
Someone had cut through most of the strands, leaving just enough intact that it wouldn't be immediately obvious, and the main mounting bolt was loose, turned back several threads, held in place by friction alone. Marcus' hands shook as he examined the setup. This wasn't accident or neglect. This was sabotage. The light weighed at least 40 lb. if it fell during the presentation directly onto the stage where Elena would be standing.
He didn't let himself finish the thought. Working quickly, he secured the mounting bolt properly, tested the weight distribution, replaced the safety cable entirely with a new one from his equipment bag. Then he checked every other light in the rig. Two more had loosened bolts. He secured them all.
By the time he finished, he'd been in the auditorium for 90 minutes. His shirt was soaked with sweat. His mind raced through implications he didn't want to face. Someone had tried to rig that light to fall. Someone inside the building with access to equipment and schedules and enough knowledge of the technical systems to make it look like an accident.
Someone wanted Elena Hart dead. The question burning in his mind was whether to report this, tell Amanda, tell security if this was deliberate sabotage. There were protocols. investigations. Potential danger to Elena that extended beyond one rigged light, but he had no proof beyond his professional judgment. The frayed cable could theoretically be explained as wear.
The loose bolts might be attributed to poor maintenance by the facilities team, and if he was wrong, if he raised alarms that led nowhere, he'd look paranoid or attention-seeking. Worse, he'd put himself directly in Elena's line of sight in a way that violated everything she valued about him. She needed him invisible, solving problems quietly, not creating drama. Marcus made his decision. He documented everything with photos on his tablet, secured all the systems, made a note to check them again before the presentation.
Then he went back to the executive floor, and tried to act like his heart wasn't racing. At 3:30, Amanda sent a message asking him to verify video feeds in the auditorium one final time. Marcus went back down, checked the lights again, still secure, confirmed all systems operational. People were already filling the seats. Press photographers set up cameras.