" "Good. Keep working? " Marcus frowned. Olivia rarely sounded nervous. "Today?
" she sounded furious. "What's happening? " he asked. Grant's pushing harder than expected. "He's trying to force a preliminary vote by tomorrow.
" Marcus closed his eyes. "Faster than anticipated. Much faster. Then we need the missing server data. Can you get it?
Marcus looked at Daniel's screen. 27 missing minutes stared back at him like a locked door. I'm going to try. Olivia lowered her voice. Marcus.
Yeah. Be careful. The line disconnected. Marcus sat motionless for several seconds. Be careful.
It was the same thing people always said when they were afraid something bad was about to happen. The problem was that careful people rarely changed outcomes. He returned his attention to the recovered files. Daniel had begun reconstructing fragments of the deleted activity. Slowly pieces emerged.
File transfers, login credentials, internal communications. Then a name appeared. Marcus froze. Not Grant Whitaker. Someone else.
Someone higher. Someone nobody had considered. His stomach dropped because suddenly the conspiracy looked much bigger than a single board member protecting his interests. Someone with executive-level privileges had helped create the pathway. Someone still active inside the company.
Someone close enough to the center to hide in plain sight. Back inside Crown Spire, Evelyn ended the board meeting without conceding a single inch of ground. She answered every question directly. She challenged assumptions. She dismantled weak arguments.
Yet when she returned to her office, exhaustion crashed over her like a wave. She closed the door and sat in silence. The city stretched endlessly beyond the windows. For years, she had believed success would eventually silence loneliness. Instead, it had amplified it.
Her phone vibrated. Marcus. She answered immediately. Tell me you found something. There was a pause longer than she liked.
I found more than something. Her heart accelerated. What does that mean? Marcus looked again at the recovered file. The name still sat there impossible and terrifying.
It means Grant isn't the whole story. Evelyn stood up slowly. Who else? Another silence. Marcus struggled to say it aloud because speaking the name would make it real.