Chapter 321
The conference room buzzed with quiet anticipation.
Everyone involved in the FZZL project had gathered. Jarrett stood at the front, clipboard in hand and a polite smile on his boyish face.
“Please set your phones to vibrate or silent,” he announced.
Jonathan, Prescott, Jim, and the rest dutifully complied, the soft chime of notifications fading into silence. Jarrett’s warm smile grew a notch–his cherubic features lent him an easy approachability that made people instinctively trust him.
He plugged a USB drive into the laptop and switched on the projector. The others assumed he was preparing to present the next phase of the genetics database. No one noticed his other hand, hidden in his pocket, flicking on a small signal and Wi–Fi jammer. The device was barely larger than a deck of cards, but its range was perfectly tuned to cover this room–and only this room.
It was enough. As long as the meeting continued, Jonathan and his colleagues would remain cut off from the outside world.
“Let’s dive in,” Jarrett began, his voice confident and engaging. “I’ll walk you through how genetic data integrates with our Al–assisted diagnostic system.”
As Jarrett launched into his presentation, the mood couldn’t have been more different in the grand ballroom. Niamh, still mingling among the wedding guests, was approached by a server. “Excuse me, Ms. O’Connor, Jonathan left a USB drive in his room. He asked if you could fétch it for him.”
Niamh hesitated. She knew Jonathan was likely in a meeting with the CelestiMed team, and figured Prescott would be with him. Why send her instead of Prescott? It didn’t quite add up.
Worse, Jonathan had never mentioned where exactly he kept his USB drives. He’d brought several on this trip, and she had no idea which one held the FZZL files.
She pulled out her phone and called Jonathan. No answer. She tried Prescott. Still nothing.
Maybe they’d set their phones to silent for the meeting? Maybe they were simply too busy to step away?
Reluctantly, she decided to fetch the drive herself. It was just a simple errand, after all, and she knew how important the FZZL project was to Jonathan.
1/2
14:26
Niamh slipped out of the ballroom. Unnoticed in the corner, Marina watched her leave, then quietly made her way to the restroom.
Niamh took the elevator up to the twelfth floor. The hotel was nearly deserted–almost everyone was downstairs celebrating Susy’s wedding. The hallway was eerily quiet, like a scene from an abandoned film set.
A housekeeping cart stood at the far end of the hall, a maid quietly cleaning. Jonathan’s room was at the very end.
As Niamh approached, she reached for her keycard. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the cleaner silently moving closer, stopping just behind her.
A spike of unease ran through her. Niamh turned, and the cleaner lifted their head.
For a moment, Niamh’s breath caught. Under the brim of the baseball cap-
Daniel?!
Back in the conference room, the lights remained dim, save for the bright beam of the projector. Everyone was engrossed in Jarrett’s presentation–until a staff member burst in, breathless. “There’s a fire–everyone needs to evacuate!”
The fire alarm had apparently been ringing for some time, but the room’s soundproofing had kept it muffled.
“Mr. Thomas, this way!” Prescott and a security guard immediately shielded Jonathan, but he broke free, bolting for the emergency stairs and straight to the ballroom.
Chaos reigned. Guests were already streaming toward the exits in a frantic rush, but Jonathan fought against the tide, scanning every–face.
He searched desperately, but the one person he needed to find was nowhere in sight. As the last guests fled, Prescott finally managed to catch up and drag Jonathan out of the empty ballroom.
