Chapter 3 - Twenty Missing Minutes.
.The security room was three floors below the lobby, behind a door guests never noticed and executives rarely entered.
Charlotte entered it less than ten minutes after learning the cameras had failed.
Daniel walked beside her.
Adrian and Vanessa followed despite not being invited.
The security director, Marcus Bell, sat before twelve monitors and wiped his hands against his trousers.
"The system didn't completely fail," Marcus explained.
"Only four lobby feeds stopped saving."
Charlotte studied the screen map.
"Which four?"
Marcus pointed.
The main entrance, the central seating area, the west staircase, and the reception desk had all gone dark in the archive at nearly the same minute.
Those were the exact angles that would have captured Charlotte's arrival and confrontation.
Daniel exhaled slowly.
"That isn't random."
Adrian leaned against the console.
"Hotels have technical problems every day."
Charlotte ignored him.
"Do the cameras still have local buffers?"
Marcus blinked.
"Possibly, but the files should have synced automatically."
"Should have isn't the same as did."
Vanessa scoffed.
"Are we seriously turning a minor scene in the lobby into a criminal investigation?"
Charlotte looked at her.
"No one said criminal."
Vanessa's expression changed.
It was brief, but Daniel noticed it too.
Charlotte turned back to Marcus.
"Who has administrator access?"
Marcus swallowed.
"Myself, Mr. Reed, our systems engineer, and executive administration."
"Define executive administration."
Marcus hesitated.
Daniel answered for him.
"Adrian's office."
The room became very still.
Adrian straightened.
"For emergency continuity only."
Charlotte nodded.
"Then you won't mind an access audit."
"I mind wasting time."
"That's not what I asked."
Marcus opened the system log.
The last administrator action had occurred at 6:42 p.m., eleven minutes before Charlotte walked through the front entrance.
The account name displayed on the monitor was EXEC-03.
Daniel frowned.
"Whose account is that?"
Marcus looked toward Adrian.
"Executive administration."
Vanessa folded her arms.
"That proves nothing."
Charlotte agreed.
"You're right."
Vanessa seemed surprised.
"It proves someone used the account."
Charlotte leaned closer to the monitor.
"The question is who."
Marcus clicked into the network history.
A device identifier appeared next to the login.
Daniel recognized it first.
"That's not an office computer."
Marcus shook his head.
"It's a mobile device."
Adrian's voice sharpened.
"Enough."
Charlotte did not move.
Marcus opened the registered device list.
The system took several seconds to load.
Then a name appeared beside EXEC-03.
V. MERCER - EXECUTIVE GUEST ACCESS.
Daniel stared at Vanessa.
Vanessa's face went pale, but she recovered quickly.
"I haven't touched the security system in my life."
Charlotte watched her carefully.
"Then someone used your device."
"Exactly."
"Where is it?"
Vanessa reached into her silver clutch.
Her hand stopped.
She searched again.
Then she looked at her father.
"My phone is gone."
Adrian's irritation turned suddenly real.
Marcus leaned toward another monitor.
"There may be one more way to recover those twenty minutes."
Charlotte turned.
"What way?"
Marcus pointed toward a small line of text on the network map.
"The lobby cameras mirror low-resolution backups to the off-site disaster server."
Adrian's expression changed instantly.
Charlotte saw it.
"Pull the backup," she said.
Marcus typed his credentials.
A progress bar appeared.
Twenty percent.
Forty percent.
May you like
Then every monitor in the room went black at once.
Someone had just cut power to the security floor.
