Chapter 7 - The Room Behind the Mirror
Paige looked exhausted when Nora reached the lobby.
Her blonde hair was hidden beneath a baseball cap, and she wore oversized sunglasses despite being indoors.
Nora stopped several feet away.
Relief collided with anger.
"Where have you been?"
Paige removed the glasses.
"Trying not to make this worse."
"You disappeared."
"My phone disappeared."
Nora's anger faded.
"What?"
Paige glanced toward the elevators.
"Not here."
Lena brought everyone into a smaller room away from the Hartwell conference.
Adrian came upstairs from the lobby after Nora asked him to join them.
Paige looked surprised when she saw him.
"Adrian Vale?"
"You know me?"
"Everybody in events knows who owns the Meridian."
Adrian sat against the wall.
"Then tell us what happened."
Paige took a breath.
She had worked in Hartwell Events accounting for eighteen months.
Three months earlier, she noticed vendor payments routed through newly created consulting firms.
Most looked ordinary.
One did not.
NB Creative Strategy LLC had Nora's initials, Nora's old apartment address, and an authorization document bearing Nora's electronic signature.
Paige knew Nora had never mentioned owning a company.
She began copying internal records.
"Why did you not tell me immediately?" Nora asked.
"Because I thought Caleb was hiding money from the company."
Paige looked down.
"I did not realize the company was helping him."
She explained the missing eight minutes from the security footage.
Paige had entered the archive room, shown Nora the documents, and handed her the flash drive.
Then Caleb's assistant appeared in the hallway.
Paige panicked and told Nora to leave separately.
After Nora left, Paige returned to her desk.
Her work phone was gone.
Her access badge stopped working.
A security supervisor told her she had been placed on administrative leave.
"They knew," Nora said.
Paige nodded.
"By the time I reached my car, the first company email had already gone out."
Lena asked the obvious question.
"Why come here today?"
Paige reached into her bag and removed a keycard.
"Because the flash drive was not the only copy."
Nora stared at her.
Paige continued.
"Hartwell keeps an executive media room behind the mirrored wall in their main conference suite."
"I have been in that suite," Nora said.
"I never saw another door."
"You were not supposed to."
Paige placed the keycard on the table.
"The room stores event footage, archived laptops, backup drives, and executive communications used for crisis management."
Adrian's attention sharpened.
"Archived laptops?"
Paige looked at Nora.
"I saw yours there last week."
The room fell silent.
Nora pictured her old computer sitting inside a hidden archive while Caleb's attorney claimed a transfer had been signed from it.
Lena picked up the keycard but did not use it.
"We do not enter private property without authorization."
Paige nodded quickly.
"I know."
"Then why bring this?"
"Because there is more."
Paige opened her own laptop and showed them a photograph taken through the media-room door.
Shelves lined the wall.
Nora's silver laptop was visible on the second shelf.
Beside it sat a black binder.
The binder's label was readable even in the grainy image.
REPUTATION RESPONSE - N. BENNETT.
Nora felt a strange calm settle over her.
They had not improvised after she refused to sign.
They had built an entire campaign in advance.
Adrian looked at Lena.
"Can that photograph get you a preservation order?"
Lena closed the laptop.
"It can get me started."
Then Paige's expression changed.
"There is one problem."
Nora looked at her.
May you like
"What?"
"The media room was scheduled for a complete archive wipe tonight at ten."
