Chapter 8 - The Missing Hour.
The boardroom screens went black before anyone saw Mara's choice.
Every light in the room flickered once.
Then the emergency power came on.
Marcus swore under his breath.
Kane stood.
“What happened?”
Nolan checked his phone.
“Network isolation.”
Adrian looked at Mara.
“What did you press?”
She held his gaze.
“You'll find out when the system does.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the only one you're getting in front of this room.”
Eleanor's image had vanished with the network.
The directors immediately began arguing.
Some wanted the vote postponed.
Others demanded Mara's device be inspected.
Helen Ward called for outside counsel.
Everett Kane sat back down and watched everyone with unsettling calm.
Adrian leaned toward Mara.
“You planned that.”
“I suspected somebody would cut the network as soon as the trust activated.”
“How?”
“Because whoever wants control needs uncertainty more than they need a result.”
Adrian studied her.
She had spent two years quietly cataloging files and correcting mislabeled records.
He had mistaken patience for passivity.
That error was becoming expensive.
Mara leaned closer.
“And because I pressed neither button.”
Adrian blinked.
“What?”
“I touched the space between them.”
A tiny smile appeared.
“The screen died first.”
Adrian almost laughed.
“That's reckless.”
“You keep a concealed sidearm in an office and you're grading my risk management?”
He had no answer that would help him.
Marcus returned from the wall panel.
“The floor is isolated from the building network.”
“Can we reconnect?” Adrian asked.
“Not from here.”
Nolan looked toward the old archive corridor.
“There is a hardline junction in Gabriel's office.”
Adrian frowned.
“That office was sealed.”
Mara held up the black card.
“Apparently I specialize in sealed doors.”
They left the board arguing behind them.
Kane followed.
Adrian stopped him in the corridor.
“No.”
Kane looked at him.
“You think I'm behind this.”
“I think you knew about missing money and kept it from me.”
“I also think somebody stole my signature.”
“Then stay with the board.”
Kane's jaw tightened.
“Your father made the same mistake.”
Adrian stopped.
“What mistake?”
“Assuming everyone who hid information from him was an enemy.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“You are becoming very comfortable talking about my father.”
Kane did not move.
“I knew Gabriel longer than you think.”
Mara interrupted.
“Does everyone in this building have a secret history with everyone else?”
Kane looked at her.
“Pretty much.”
It was the first honest-sounding answer she had heard from him.
They reached Gabriel's former office.
Mara's black card opened it.
The room had been preserved almost exactly as Adrian remembered.
Dark desk.
Green leather chairs.
A wall of books no one had read.
And a brass clock stopped at 4:17.
Adrian stared at it.
A headache began behind his left eye.
Mara noticed.
“What?”
He pointed.
“The clock.”
“What about it?”
“I remember it.”
Nolan moved toward the network junction.
Marcus started reconnecting cables.
Mara stayed beside Adrian.
“What do you remember?”
“Being here.”
“When?”
“I don't know.”
He closed his eyes.
The office changed in his mind.
The lights were dimmer.
Rain struck the windows.
Fifteen-year-old Adrian stood beside the desk.
Thomas Ellis was there.
So was Celeste.
A little girl sat in one of the green chairs holding a red balloon.
Mara.
Adrian opened his eyes abruptly.
“You were here.”
She looked at him.
“We already know that.”
“No.”
He pointed to the chair.
“You sat there.”
Mara stared at it.
Something shifted in her expression.
“A balloon.”
Adrian froze.
“What?”
“Red.”
Her face lost color.
“I remember a red balloon.”
They looked at each other.
The same missing room was beginning to return to both of them.
Mara walked to the chair and touched the cracked leather arm.
A new image came to her.
Her mother kneeling in front of her.
“Whatever happens, stay with Adrian.”
Mara whispered the words aloud.
Adrian's breathing changed.
He remembered the next line.
“He knows where the key is.”
Mara looked at him.
The room blurred around Adrian.
He saw Thomas Ellis arguing with Gabriel.
He saw Eleanor standing by the window.
He saw Everett Kane near the door.
Kane had been there too.
Then he saw his own hand place something inside the brass clock.
Adrian walked toward it.
The clock was stopped at 4:17 because the minute hand blocked a hidden latch.
He moved it to 4:18.
A compartment opened behind the face.
Inside was a tiny metal cylinder.
Mara stared.
“The third key.”
Adrian picked it up.
Nolan turned from the network panel.
“That's not a key.”
Marcus looked closer.
“It's a data capsule.”
A small port was hidden beneath one end.
Marcus connected it to an offline laptop.
One encrypted file appeared.
The filename was a date.
APRIL 17, 2008.
The password hint contained four words.
THE HOUR YOU LOST.
Adrian stared at the brass clock.
4:17.
Mara whispered.
“What happened at 4:17?”
A memory broke through both of them at once.
A glass shattered.
Someone shouted.
The office door locked.
Eleanor said, “You should never have brought the girl here.”
Then Gabriel's voice.
“Adrian, take Mara and run.”
Adrian grabbed the desk.
Mara grabbed the chair.
Both were breathing hard.
Marcus stood.
“What did you remember?”
Adrian looked toward the door.
“Eleanor was here.”
Mara's voice shook.
“And she wanted me gone.”
The laptop beeped.
The encrypted file had accepted a password automatically.
Marcus stared at the screen.
“We didn't enter anything.”
Nolan leaned closer.
The file opened.
A video appeared.
The date was April 17, 2008.
The camera showed Gabriel's office.
Young Adrian stood beside the desk.
Young Mara sat in the green chair.
Celeste and Thomas Ellis were arguing with Eleanor.
Everett Kane stood by the door.
Then another figure stepped into frame.
Everyone in the present room went silent.
It was Nolan's father, Elias Hart.
May you like
And he was holding a folder labeled PROJECT MIRROR.
THE SYNDICATE'S QUIET HOUR
