Chapter 8- THE FIRST MOVE

By nine o'clock, word had already spread that Kaelen Sanders was in one of his moods.

The door to his office had been left open all morning, a habit that usually meant someone was about to have a very unpleasant day.

Marcus knocked once on the glass door.

"Come in."

He stepped inside with a thick file tucked beneath his arm.

"You asked for the overnight access reports."

Kaelen was standing by the window with his back to the room. He reached for the file without turning around.

For a while, the only sound in the office was the soft rustle of paper.

Marcus shifted his weight.

Kaelen finally looked up.

"Three people accessed the logistics floor after business hours."

"Yes."

"Who approved it?"

Marcus hesitated.

"The system logged it as scheduled maintenance."

"Hm."

Kaelen flipped another page.

"And the server room?"

"There was a cooling spike around nine-fifteen."

He looked at Marcus again.

"Does that happen during routine maintenance?"

"...No."

Another page.

"Three hard copies of the regional logistics report were printed last night."

"Yes."

"Why?"

Marcus opened his mouth, then closed it again.

He didn't have an answer.

Kaelen placed the file on his desk.

"I want the paper records."

Marcus frowned.

"The physical logs?"

"The digital ones tell me what someone wanted the system to remember."

A brief silence.

"The paper records tell me what actually happened."

Marcus gave a slow nod.

"I'll get them."

"Don't delegate it."

"...Understood."

Marcus turned toward the door.

"And Marcus."

He stopped.

"I don't want summaries."

Kaelen met his eyes.

"I want everything."

"Yes, sir."

Kaelen walked back to the window, absently tapping the edge of the folder against his palm. Something about the whole thing refused to sit right with him.

On their own, none of the irregularities meant much. Employees occasionally worked late. Servers malfunctioned.

Reports got printed.

But all of them happening on the same night?

That was too much to dismiss as coincidence.

He set the folder on his desk just as the phone buzzed.

"Yes?"

"Mr. Sanders," his secretary said, "Robert just confirmed the regional logistics report is ready for the departmental meeting."

Kaelen's gaze drifted back to the file Marcus had brought in.

"All right.”

********

Quincy stepped onto the procurement floor and immediately knew something was wrong.

The office wasn't usually this quiet.

People were talking, but only in low voices. A few stopped the moment she walked past, pretending to be busy with whatever was on their desks.

She glanced around once before heading to her cubicle.

What happened now?

She set her bag down and reached for the power button on her computer.

"Morning."

Peter's voice came from behind her.

She looked over her shoulder.

"Morning."

He took one look at her and frowned.

"You look exhausted."

"I feel exhausted."

"Tough night?"

Quincy busied herself arranging a few files on her desk.

"You ask too many questions."

Peter laughed.

"I'll take that as a yes."

She didn't answer.

He took a sip of his coffee, then nodded toward the rest of the office.

"Have you noticed everyone acting strange?"

"I noticed."

"They've been like this since they got in."

"What happened?"

Peter shrugged.

"No idea. But whatever it is, it's got everybody nervous."

Before either of them could say another word, the overhead speaker crackled.

"Attention, all Procurement staff. Please report to Boardroom B immediately."

Peter let out a long sigh.

"There it is."

"What?"

"The reason everyone's pretending to work."

Quincy picked up her notebook.

"You mean they weren't pretending before?"

Peter grinned.

"I knew there was a sense of humor hiding in there somewhere."

She didn't react.

"Don't get used to it."

Without another word, she walked toward the boardroom.

Peter smiled to himself before following behind.

The boardroom was already half full by the time Quincy walked in.

She took the first empty seat she saw and placed her notebook on the table.

Everyone seemed distracted, glancing toward the door every few seconds as though waiting for someone.

Peter slid into the chair beside her and leaned back.

"Any idea what this is about?"

Quincy shook her head.

"If I did, I wouldn't be here guessing with everyone else."

Peter smiled, but before he could reply, the room fell quiet.

Kaelen had just walked in.

He acknowledged no one as he made his way to the head of the table. He placed a folder on the polished surface, looked around the room for a moment, then took his seat.

"I'll get straight to the point," he said. "This meeting wasn't planned. I called it because there are a few things I'd like clarified before we move forward."

Kaelen turned slightly.

"Robert."

Robert was already on his feet.

"Yes, Mr. Sanders."

"The logistics report."

Robert nodded and walked to the projector. He connected his laptop, waited for the screen to come alive, then faced the room.

"The report covers the northern, eastern and central regions for the last quarter," he began.

"Overall, performance has remained within expectation, although there are a few areas that deserve attention."

He clicked to the next slide and continued speaking, Revenue, Distribution costs, Freight expenses.

When he reached the fourth slide, however, his voice slowed.

He opened the original spreadsheet on his laptop and frowned.

For a moment, he said nothing, his eyes moving from the screen in front of him to the one on his desk.

"That's strange."

He clicked through the remaining slides, hoping the mistake was isolated.

It wasn't.

Every key projection had changed.

The revenue forecast was lower. Transport costs had been inflated. Even the profit margins had been recalculated using figures that made no commercial sense.

A murmur spread across the room.

Robert took a slow breath and turned back to his laptop. His fingers moved quickly over the keyboard as he opened the document's edit history.

"I think I know what happened."

The room quietened.

"The report wasn't corrupted." He paused, scanning the audit trail. "It was edited."

He looked up, his eyes settling on Quincy.

"Miss Hale..."

She met his gaze without flinching.

Robert hesitated. He clearly hadn't expected what he was about to say.

"The last changes to this report were made from your account."

Quincy didn't speak.

Robert clicked once, projecting the audit history onto the screen.

"There."

He pointed to the final entry.

"Yesterday. 3:47 p.m."

His voice remained professional, but there was an edge of uncertainty now.

"According to the system, the report was altered using your login credentials."

Every eye in the room shifted to Quincy.

Quincy looked at the screen.

"May I" she asked.

Robert stepped aside without a word.

She walked to the front of the room, stopping just short of the projector. Her eyes moved across the figures on the screen, then to the audit log beneath them.

"The report I submitted yesterday didn't look like this" she said quietly.

Robert folded his arms.

"The system says otherwise."

"It says these changes came from my account," Quincy corrected. "That's not the same thing."

A few people exchanged puzzled looks.

"I'm not sure I follow."

Quincy turned to face the room.

"Whoever edited this report knew exactly what they were doing, they didn't change everything, they left the headings alone, they left the first set of figures untouched."

She looked back at Robert.

"They only changed the numbers that affect the final projections."

Robert's eyes followed where she was pointing.

She continued.

"If I wanted to manipulate this report, I would've changed everything."

The room remained silent.

"Instead, someone altered just enough to make the report look believable."

She let that sink in before adding,

"And just enough to make it look like I made careless mistakes."

Quincy clicked into one of the cells.

The formula bar expanded across the top of the screen.

His face slowly lost its colour.

"These aren't my calculations."

He clicked through the remaining slides, opening the formulas one after another.

Every one of them had been altered.

Someone near the back let out a quiet breath.

"So... someone edited the report."

"The report was edited," Quincy corrected. "The question is who."

Robert looked back at the audit history.

"It still traces back to your account."

"And that," Quincy replied, "is exactly what whoever did this wanted.”

Kaelen finally closed the file in front of him.

The sound was enough to draw every eye back to the head of the table.

"The meeting is over."

Nobody moved.

His gaze settled on Robert.

"Leave the report."

"Yes, sir."

Then he looked at Quincy.

"Miss Hale."

She met his eyes.

"My office.”

Kaelen was back in his office.

His laptop sat open on the desk while the Head of IT spoke over the speakerphone.

"We've gone through the audit trail twice, Mr. Sanders."

"And?"

"The report wasn't edited remotely."

Kaelen leaned back in his chair.

"It was done from a workstation on the logistics floor."

"What time?"

"Nine fifteen last night."

Kaelen reached for the access logs Marcus had brought from the basement and flipped to the previous night's records.

"Keep talking."

"The file was opened using Quincy Hale's credentials. Whoever did it knew exactly what they were looking for. Only the formulas tied to the final projections were changed."

Kaelen's eyes stopped on the page in front of him.

"There should be a badge entry."

"There isn't."

The line went quiet.

Kaelen looked at the log again.

No entry.

No exit.

Nothing.

"The security cameras?" he asked.

"They went offline for four minutes."

"By accident?"

"No, sir."

Kaelen closed the folder.

"What causes that?"

"The cameras can only be taken offline through an override."

"Who has that level of access?"

Another pause.

"Executive personnel."

Kaelen looked out through the glass wall of his office.

Employees moved across the floor as though it were any other afternoon.

"Send me the names."

"Yes, sir."

"And don't discuss this with anyone."

"I understand."

Kaelen ended the call and placed the phone on his desk.

Someone had used Quincy's credentials.

Someone had disabled the cameras.

He looked down at the access log one last time.

Whoever was pulling the strings knew the company almost as well as he did.