Chapter 12 - The Dead Phone
The lock clicked loud enough for everyone to hear.
Charles stood. “Open the doors.”
Margaret’s image remained calm on the screen.
“This meeting will continue until the board votes.”
Rebecca checked her phone. No signal.
Maya checked hers.
Dead.
Not low battery.
Dead.
Ethan looked toward the ceiling. “Signal jammer.”
Grant pretended surprise badly.
Maya moved toward him.
“You planned this.”
Grant raised both hands. “I’m sitting in the same locked room.”
“Because you want witnesses.”
“To what?”
“To Margaret removing Charles and blaming me for the fraud.”
Grant’s smile disappeared.
Maya had guessed right.
Claire saw it too.
“You son of a—”
“Claire,” Charles warned.
“No, Dad. He used Mom’s accounts. He used my foundation. He let me sign things.”
Grant’s voice hardened. “You signed because you never read anything.”
Claire flinched as if he had struck her.
Maya turned toward Margaret’s screen. “You brought us here to force a vote before Alden can investigate.”
Margaret said, “I brought you here because the company needs stability.”
“You mean silence.”
“Silence is underrated.”
Maya looked at the board table.
There were twelve tablets built into it for secure voting.
Internal network only.
No external signal.
She sat down.
Rebecca whispered, “What are you doing?”
Maya typed into the tablet.
“Using the thing she forgot to shut off.”
The board voting system had an audit channel.
Audit channels had logs.
Logs had routes.
Routes sometimes had messaging functions.
Maya opened a diagnostic console.
Ethan leaned over. “Can you send something out?”
“Maybe.”
“To who?”
Maya typed one address.
Nolan Price.
The message was only six words.
FIRE ALARM. FLOOR 62. DO IT NOW.
For ten seconds, nothing happened.
Then the entire tower erupted with alarms.
Emergency locks released.
The boardroom doors opened.
People moved at once.
Grant bolted.
Maya chased him into the hall.
He reached the stairwell first.
As the door swung shut, his phone fell from his pocket.
Maya picked it up.
May you like
One incoming message lit the screen.
MARGARET: IF MAYA GETS OUT, ELENA DOESN’T.
