Chapter 2
The vibration stopped before I could reach for the phone.
For a moment, the room held only rain and the soft hum of the office lights. Gabriel looked at the inside pocket of my coat.
"Do you want to check it?"
I wanted to say no. I wanted to leave the phone where it was and pretend the person calling had mistaken the number, the hour, the entire night.
Instead, I pulled it out.
The screen showed an unknown number. No message. One missed call.
Gabriel didn't ask to see it. He turned the black laptop toward himself and opened it without connecting the cable.
"Can you use it offline?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Then don't type my name."
"I won't."
His answer landed with a strange weight. He had agreed to the obvious thing, but he said it as if my name were something that could be used against me.
He inserted the drive.
The laptop took several seconds to recognize it. A folder appeared with no label, just a string of numbers. Gabriel clicked once and waited.
There were six files.
Three were spreadsheets. One was a scanned document. One was an audio file. The last was a folder marked ACCESS.
I felt cold despite the wet clothes clinging to my skin.
"Open the access folder," I said.
Gabriel looked at me. "Are you sure?"
"No. Open it anyway."
The folder contained a list of times, doors, and authorization codes. At first it looked meaningless. Then I saw the date.
The first entry was from two nights earlier.
The last was from tonight.
My route appeared in the notes column.
I stopped breathing.
Gabriel's hand moved toward the keyboard and stopped before touching it. "What does that mean?"
"It means someone knew where I was going."
"Who had access to that route?"
"Not many people."
"Names."
I shook my head.
He didn't push. He clicked the scanned document instead. It was a payment authorization with the amount blacked out, but the destination account remained visible. The account number repeated beside three entries in the spreadsheet.
One of the entries carried Toby's initials.
My stomach turned.
"That's not his account," I said.
"How do you know?"
"Because he doesn't have one connected to this system."
Gabriel leaned closer to the screen. His face changed by degrees: concern first, then concentration, then something harder.
"What is it?"
I pointed to the authorization code. "That code belongs to someone who can approve internal transfers."
"Someone in finance?"
"Someone above finance."
He looked back at the list. "You recognized it immediately."
"I've seen it on approval notices."
"Whose?"
I closed my eyes.
The answer had lived in my mind since I saw the first line, but saying it would turn suspicion into an accusation.
"Gabriel."
He went still.
"No," I said. "Not you."
The office door clicked.
Gabriel shut the laptop.
Neither of us spoke. The handle moved down once, slowly, then rose.
My phone vibrated again.
This time a message appeared.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT IT WHERE YOU FOUND IT.
The blood in my trouser leg felt suddenly warm. Gabriel read the words over my shoulder but didn't take the phone.
"Did you send anyone a location?" he asked.
"No."
"Did you tell anyone you were coming here?"
"No."
The door handle moved again, more firmly.
Gabriel stood and placed himself between me and the entrance. He did not tell me to hide. He did not reach for me.
"Stay seated," he said.
I gripped the chair arm. "You know who has that authorization code."
"I know who might."
"Then say it."
His eyes met mine.
"Not here."
The laptop opened by itself.
I watched the screen wake under the lid Gabriel had closed. A new file appeared inside the access folder, timestamped less than a minute earlier.
There was no sender name.
May you like
Just one line of text.
HE'S NOT CLEAR.
