Chapter 2 - The Name on the Screen.
Mara woke twelve minutes later when the elevator bell sounded beyond the office doors.
Her eyes opened slowly, and for a moment she seemed unable to remember why she was sitting against the most intimidating man in Vale Tower.
Then she saw Nolan and Theo near the windows, and fear returned to her face before either man spoke.
She pushed herself upright too quickly and pressed one hand to her temple.
'What time is it?'
'Twelve fourteen,' Adrian said.
Mara's expression changed immediately.
'Then they already found it.'
Theo and Nolan exchanged a look.
Adrian placed the printed access log on the coffee table between them.
'They found something.'
Mara stared at her own name on the page until the color drained from her face.
'That's not my login pattern.'
Nolan leaned forward.
'The credentials are yours.'
'The credentials are mine, but I never use remote approval after ten because the system forces a second verification that never works on my phone.'
Theo tapped the line showing the biometric confirmation.
'What about this?'
Mara laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
'I cut my thumb opening a supply crate this afternoon, and Facilities reset my biometric access at four.'
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
'Who handled the reset?'
'A technician named Eric, but Conrad's assistant was standing there the whole time because she said Mr. Shaw needed my badge for an audit.'
Nolan's head lifted.
'You gave her your badge?'
'For six minutes, and I wrote the time down because it felt wrong.'
Mara reached into the pocket of her olive shirt and pulled out a folded receipt with four times written across the back.
Adrian studied the handwriting, then looked at Theo.
'Get the Facilities camera footage from three forty-five to four fifteen.'
Theo left the room without another word.
Mara stared at the access report again.
'They knew I was going to find the invoices.'
Adrian sat across from her now, giving her enough space to think but not enough to disappear into panic.
'Start at the beginning.'
Mara drew a long breath.
She explained that she had been assigned to reconcile vendor payments for the East Harbor acquisition, a routine job no senior executive expected anyone to examine closely.
On Tuesday, she found eleven consulting invoices paid to three companies that shared the same mailing address.
On Wednesday, she found that all three companies had been approved by Conrad Shaw personally.
That evening, someone changed the invoice dates in the accounting system and reassigned the approval chain to Mara's department.
'I printed the originals before they changed,' she said.
Nolan leaned closer.
'Where are they?'
'In a blue folder in Records B.'
Adrian remembered the words she had whispered in her sleep.
'Who knows that?'
Mara looked at the floor.
'No one, unless someone was watching me.'
The office phone rang once and stopped.
A second later, Nolan's tablet lit up with a message from the boardroom.
Mara read the preview before he could turn the screen away.
EMPLOYEE MARA ELLIS REQUIRED TO APPEAR IMMEDIATELY.
Her shoulders tightened.
'They want me in there so they can make me say something scared and messy.'
Adrian stood.
'Then don't give them scared and messy.'
'You think they'll listen to me?'
'No.'
His answer was so immediate that Mara looked up.
Adrian buttoned his vest and picked up the security log.
'They're going to listen to the evidence.'
Mara hesitated.
'And if the blue folder is gone?'
Before Adrian could answer, Theo returned from the hall with a face that told them everything.
'Facilities footage from four o'clock is missing.'
Nolan cursed under his breath.
Theo placed his phone on the table and played the only surviving clip.
It showed Mara handing her badge to Conrad's assistant.
Then the recording jumped forward seventeen minutes.
When the image returned, Mara was gone, the assistant was gone, and the biometric reset terminal was still open.
Adrian watched the blank gap twice.
'Seventeen minutes,' he said.
May you like
Mara looked at him.
'That's exactly how long it took someone to build a version of me they could blame.'
