Chapter 18

ISABELLA

I called Chloe at noon.

"Get me HR," I said. "I want the head of department in my office in twenty minutes. And pull the personnel files for Derek Obi and Sandra Yee. Just the files. Nothing else yet."

"Understood," Chloe said.

The head of HR was a woman named Priya. She had been with the company for nine years. She was one of the ones who had survived everything intact, which told me she was either very careful or very clean. Possibly both.

She came in at twenty past twelve exactly.

"Miss Isabella," she said, sitting down across from me.

"Priya," I said. "I am going to ask you something and I need a straight answer."

"Of course," she said.

"Derek Obi and Sandra Yee," I said. "Were their hiring records ever flagged?"

Priya looked at the folder in my hands.

"They were not processed through the standard panel," she said. "I raised it at the time. I was told the decision had already been made at board level and to process the paperwork."

"Who told you that?" I said.

"Mara," she said. She did not hesitate.

I nodded once.

"I am going to need you to prepare termination documentation," I said. "For both of them. Grounds of conduct incompatible with financial integrity obligations. Have it ready by three o'clock."

Priya's expression did not change much. But her back straightened slightly.

"Both today?" she said.

"Both today," I said. "Quietly. I do not want a scene. I do not want warnings circulating. I want it done before end of business."

"What about their access?" Priya asked.

"Revoke it the moment they are informed," I said. "Not before. The moment. Their systems, their email, their building clearance. All of it at once."

"Understood," Priya said. She stood. "And Marcus Cole?"

I looked at her.

"What about him?" I said.

"He was also brought in under the same arrangement," Priya said. "Mara's recommendation. No panel."

"Marcus Cole stays," I said.

Priya nodded. She left.

* * *

By three fifteen, it was done.

Chloe reported to me from the doorway, quiet and efficient.

"Derek Obi has left the building," she said. "Sandra Yee is still in the conference room on four. She is asking for a meeting with you."

"She will not get one," I said. "Tell Priya to complete the exit process. Standard severance only. Nothing beyond what the contract requires."

"She is very upset," Chloe said.

"She is welcome to be upset," I said. I did not look up from the spreadsheet in front of me.

A few minutes passed.

Then Chloe spoke again from the doorway.

"She asked me to tell you something," Chloe said. Her voice was careful.

I looked up.

"What?" I said.

"She said you do not know what you are walking into," Chloe said. "Those were her exact words."

I looked at Chloe for a moment.

"Make sure she is out of the building in the next thirty minutes," I said.

"Already in progress," Chloe said.

I went back to the spreadsheet.

* * *

It was close to five when Rane knocked on my office door.

I had not expected that.

"Come in," I said.

He opened the door and stood at the edge of it. He did not come fully inside. He looked at the papers spread across my desk and the two empty coffee cups near my right hand.

"I heard about Obi and Yee," Rane said.

"I expect you did," I said.

"Want to tell me why?" he said.

"Conduct incompatible with financial integrity," I said. "It is in the paperwork."

"Isabella," he said. Not sharply. Just my name, the way he used to say it when he wanted me to look at him instead of through him.

I looked at him.

"There is money missing, Rane," I said. "From at least three departments. Over four hundred thousand that we can confirm. Possibly more. Both of them had their hands in it."

He was quiet for a moment.

"Can you prove it?" he said.

"Not fully," I said. "Not yet. But I will."

"And if someone pushes back on the terminations without full evidence?" he said.

"Then they push back," I said. "And we deal with it. But I was not going to leave them sitting inside the building with access to every financial record we have while I built the full case."

Rane looked at me for a long moment.

"Who else is involved?" he said.

"I do not know yet," I said. "That is what I am trying to find out."

"Is Mara in this?" he said. His voice was flat. No emotion either way.

"I think so," I said. "But I need more before I can say it with certainty."

He nodded slowly.

"Then find it," he said. He turned to leave. Then stopped. "And Isabella."

"What?" I said.

"Wednesday," he said. "Lily asked me this morning if you were coming. I told her I thought so."

Something in my chest moved.

"I will be there," I said.

"Good," he said. He left.

I sat still for a moment.

Then I picked up my pen and went back to work.

* * *

The IT logs came through at six forty-three.

I was the only one left in the office. The floor was quiet. The city outside my window was shifting into its evening color, all low light and movement.

I opened the file.

It was a list of access records for the authorization system. Every login. Every timestamp. Every action taken inside the system during the window when the name-to-code mapping had been removed.

I scrolled through it slowly.

Most of the names I recognized. Standard IT staff. System administrators. Scheduled maintenance entries.

Then I got to the entry at eleven forty-seven PM on a Thursday, nine months ago.

The access had lasted four minutes and twelve seconds.

The action logged was: Authorization mapping file modified. Previous version deleted. Backup disabled.

And the name attached to the login credential was not Mara.

It was not Derek. It was not Sandra.

I stared at the screen.

My hand did not move.

Because the name attached to the login credential, the one that had gone into the system at midnight and quietly erased the only record that could have connected the money to a name, was someone I had not considered at all.

Someone who still had full access.

Someone who was still inside this building every single day.

I picked up my phone and called Chloe.

"Chloe," I said when she answered. "How long has Priya been with this company?"

"Nine years," Chloe said. "Why?"

I looked at the name on the screen.

"How well do you know her?" I said slowly.

There was a pause.

"Miss Isabella," Chloe said, her voice different now. "What did you find?"

I set the phone on the desk and stared at the screen.

Because the name in the IT log was Priya.

Priya, who I had called to my office this morning.

Priya, who had known exactly which files to prepare.

Priya, who had processed the exit of two people this afternoon who had known too much.

I picked the phone back up.

"Tell me something," I said quietly. "The files I asked you to pull today. The personnel files for Obi and Yee. Did you pull them yourself?"

"No," Chloe said slowly. "I asked Priya's assistant to pull them. She said Priya would send them directly to you."

"And the copies I received," I said. "Were they the originals?"

Silence.

"I do not know," Chloe said.

I looked at the files on my desk. The ones that had arrived so neatly. So quickly. So complete.

"What did I just let walk out of this building today?" I asked, staring at the screen as something cold moved through me.