Chapter 19 - Under the Cabinet
Leo dropped to the floor.
“Flashlight.”
Claire handed him her phone.
He shined it beneath the charred cabinet beside the study wall.
Dust. Broken glass. A melted pen.
Then a small black rectangle.
“There.”
He flattened himself against the wet floor and reached under.
His fingers touched plastic.
He pulled out Henry’s missing authorization token.
The label read HM-01.
Henry let out a breath.
“Leo, you may have just saved eight thousand pensions.”
“Can we save them before lunch?”
That made everyone move.
Back at headquarters, the accountant plugged in both tokens.
Grant entered his code.
Henry entered his.
The transfer cancellation screen appeared.
CANCEL PENDING WIRE?
Henry clicked YES.
ACCESS DENIED.
Everyone froze.
The accountant tried again.
ACCESS DENIED.
“What now?” Claire asked.
She checked the system logs.
Then her face went pale.
“Someone changed the administrator permissions forty minutes ago.”
“Martin is in custody,” Cross said.
“Then someone else is still helping him.”
Leo looked around the boardroom.
Only five people had been in the building all morning.
Henry.
Claire.
Grant.
The accountant.
And Henry’s longtime executive assistant, Eleanor Shaw.
Leo remembered something.
The night Grandpa disappeared, Eleanor had told the family Henry left his office at 6:20.
But the body-camera footage from Ruth’s server showed Henry confronting Martin inside the office at 6:41.
Eleanor had lied.
Leo stood.
“Where is Mrs. Shaw?”
Henry frowned. “In her office.”
“No,” Cross said.
He checked his phone.
“Her badge left the building twelve minutes ago.”
The accountant pulled up security footage.
Eleanor was walking through the parking garage carrying a silver laptop bag.
Grant pointed at the screen.
“That’s Martin’s backup laptop.”
Cross was already moving.
Leo watched Eleanor reach a car.
She opened the trunk.
Inside was a hard case stamped with the logo of the Federal Reserve wire network contractor.
The accountant whispered, “She has a hardware override.”
Henry stared at the screen.
“Eleanor has worked for me for twenty-nine years.”
Leo answered quietly.
“So did Martin.”
May you like
On the camera feed, Eleanor looked directly into the lens.
Then she smiled and held up Henry’s missing company seal.
