Chapter 3

When I walked out of the conference hall, the applause behind me had turned into hushed discussion.

Josh chased after me, still clutching the demonstration tablet.

"Lena, Mr. Knox wants you to come back."

"What did he say?"

"He said if you come back now, he can publicly add a technical acknowledgment."

I didn't slow down.

"Acknowledgment?"

Three years of code, twenty-seven animal trials, eight months of preclinical validation---all reduced to an acknowledgment.

Adrian really knew how to calculate.

As the elevator doors closed, I saw Nora standing by the curtain, surrounded by people from the marketing department. She had her head down, shoulders shaking, like she'd suffered some terrible injustice.

Josh lowered his voice. "Lena, everyone actually knows you built the system."

"What good does knowing do?"

I pressed the button for the twelfth floor.

"Credits don't change themselves, and permissions don't automatically migrate to other people's accounts."

The twelfth floor housed the technical department. The launch had pulled away most of the staff, leaving the office area eerily empty except for the sound of server cooling fans.

My workstation light was still on.

On the desk sat the cold coffee Nora had brought me at five that afternoon.

She'd said, "Lena, you'll be so busy tonight. I got you a sugar-free latte."

I hadn't touched that coffee. I opened my computer directly.

The admin backend showed two anomaly alerts.

One was for temporary elevation of demonstration port privileges.

One was for modification of publication credits.

Both timestamped at 6:42 PM.

I opened the records.

Applicant: Nora.

Approver: Adrian Knox.

Josh stood beside me, his face growing increasingly grim. "Lena, she shouldn't have been able to access that permission level."

"Of course she couldn't."

I scrolled down.

"Unless someone temporarily added her to the core project team."

At the bottom of the page was an inconspicuous gray log entry.

Core project member change: Nora added, Lena Sinclair's presentation privileges removed.

Operation source: Adrian Knox's CEO account.

I took screenshots, exported the logs, and packed them into an encrypted folder.

My phone vibrated.

Adrian sent a voice message.

I played it on speaker.

His voice was laced with anger. "Lena, are you satisfied now? Several investors have already left. With this stunt you pulled, you're not just embarrassing me---you're driving the company into the ground."

I replied with two words.

"Check your inbox."

Ten seconds later, he called.

"What do you mean?"

"I just sent you tonight's backend logs. If you can't understand them, I can have legal translate for you."

I looked at the member change record on screen.

"The system hasn't passed final review, yet you let a non-technical lead access the live demonstration port. At best, it's a management incident. At worst, it's compliance fraud."

The line went quiet.

After several seconds, he finally spoke. "Nora doesn't understand these things. I told her to follow procedure."

That response made me pause.

He'd defended her too quickly.

I switched back to the data repository and opened the project filing folder.

The original patent package was missing the earliest version of the algorithm documentation.

In its place was a new file.

Creator: Nora.

Creation date: Three days ago.

Josh leaned over for a look, his voice trembling. "Lena, this isn't the original filing you submitted last year."

I slowly lifted my head.

"Of course it isn't."

"Someone doesn't just want to steal tonight's presenter spot."

"They want to change the ownership of this system from the source."