Chapter 3 - Someone Inside the Walls.
Darkness swallowed the hidden office.
Elena heard Gabriel move before she saw the glow of his phone.
"Don't move."
"You keep saying that."
"And you keep ignoring me."
His flashlight came on.
Elena tried to focus on the joke instead of the fact that someone had just demonstrated control over the electricity around them.
The monitor remained black.
The hidden passage behind them looked even narrower now.
Gabriel reached toward the server cabinet.
"No."
Elena's voice stopped him.
"What?"
"If they can see us, assume they can hear us."
Gabriel looked toward the ceiling.
There was a small black circle above the desk.
A microphone.
His face turned cold.
He raised one finger to his lips.
Then he typed a message into his phone and showed it to her.
WE LEAVE LIKE WE FOUND NOTHING.
Elena nodded.
They backed into the passage.
Halfway through, Gabriel stopped beside a loose wooden trim board.
He pulled it aside and removed a tiny black device no larger than a coin.
A transmitter.
He slipped it into his pocket.
They returned to the storage room and pushed the shelving unit back into place.
When they opened the door, the west corridor camera was glowing green again.
Elena looked at Gabriel.
He gave no reaction.
Neither did she.
Celeste waited near the staircase with her tablet.
"Maintenance says the camera reset itself," she said.
Gabriel loosened one cuff as though bored.
"Good."
Celeste looked at Elena.
"Were you able to find the missing linens?"
The question was too perfect.
Elena forced a small smile.
"Wrong closet."
"That happens."
Celeste's gaze moved briefly to the broom in Elena's hand.
Then she walked away.
Gabriel waited until she disappeared.
"My office. Ten minutes."
"Why ten?"
"Because whoever's watching expects us to separate now."
He walked toward the main staircase without another word.
Elena returned to work.
For nine minutes, she dusted a hall table she had already cleaned twice.
On the tenth minute, she entered Gabriel's office through the library instead of the main corridor.
He had drawn the curtains despite the bright afternoon outside.
His laptop sat open on the desk.
"I found the transmitter's manufacturer," he said.
"That was fast."
"My company buys similar hardware for executive security."
"That's comforting."
"It shouldn't be."
He turned the laptop toward her.
A purchase record showed twelve encrypted surveillance units ordered three months earlier.
The buyer was Reyes Holdings.
The approving executive was Gabriel Reyes.
Elena stared at the screen.
"You bought them."
"Apparently."
"What does that mean?"
"It means my authorization was used."
"Without you knowing?"
"Yes."
Elena stepped back.
"Or you're very good at acting surprised."
Gabriel leaned against the desk.
"You think I built a hidden surveillance room in my own walls, took pictures of you for months, threatened you, then personally walked you into it?"
"I've met rich people with stranger hobbies."
He almost smiled.
Then his expression faded.
"Fair."
He opened another file.
The purchase request had been submitted by the office of Marcus Hale, Reyes Holdings' general counsel and Gabriel's late father's closest adviser.
Elena recognized the name immediately.
"Mara mentioned him once."
Gabriel looked up.
"When?"
"The week before she disappeared."
"What did she say?"
Elena searched her memory.
Mara had called late at night.
She had sounded tired but excited.
She had said she had found something strange in the company's books.
Their mother had told her not to bring work home.
Mara had laughed.
"She said a lawyer named Hale kept asking why she was reviewing old vendor payments."
Gabriel stood very still.
"Old vendor payments."
"Does that mean something?"
"Maybe."
He opened a locked drawer and removed a thin folder.
Inside were photocopies of bank transfers dated eight years earlier.
All were routed through small consulting companies.
Several were signed by Gabriel's father.
One had a handwritten note in the margin.
ASK MARA WHY SHE FLAGGED THIS.
Elena looked at him.
"Where did you get that?"
"My father's private files after he died."
"How long have you had it?"
"Two years."
Anger rose again.
"And you never looked for her?"
"I did."
"No one contacted my family."
"Because I didn't know which Mara it was."
"That's convenient."
"It's the truth."
She hated that she wanted to believe him.
A sharp knock hit the office door.
Gabriel closed the folder.
"Come in."
Celeste entered.
"Mr. Hale is downstairs."
Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
"I didn't call him."
"He says you did."
Elena felt the room shift around her.
Gabriel looked at Celeste.
"Did you?"
"No."
"Then somebody wants him here."
Celeste's eyes moved toward Elena.
"He also asked whether Ms. Torres was working today."
Elena stopped breathing for a second.
Gabriel closed the laptop.
"Tell him I'm unavailable."
Celeste remained in place.
"There's something else."
She held out her tablet.
Security footage showed Elena entering the west corridor the previous night at 2:13 a.m.
She was wearing the same uniform.
She was carrying the same wooden broom.
Elena stared at the image.
"That's not me."
The woman on the screen turned toward the camera.
Her face was Elena's.
May you like
Gabriel looked at her slowly.
"Then who is it?"
