Chapter 8 - The Wrong Ally.
Julian reached the Mercer Grand twelve minutes later.
Elena arrived three minutes behind him with Dana and Margaret.
The security floor had been placed under internal lockdown.
Mason stood outside the server room with two engineers and a hotel attorney who looked deeply unhappy to be there.
Julian did not slow down.
"Who went inside?"
Mason held up a tablet.
"Curtis Lane's retired badge opened the outer door at 6:51."
"Retired badges should be dead."
"It was reactivated for four minutes."
"By who?"
Mason hesitated.
"Administrator account LP-01."
Julian's face became expressionless.
Elena knew what that meant before anyone said it.
Logan Price.
Julian's head of security.
His trusted employee of eleven years.
The man who had supervised the ballroom after the blackout.
"Where is Logan?"
Mason looked toward the elevator.
"He left the building nine minutes ago."
Julian turned to a security officer.
"Freeze his credentials, company card, parking access, and remote login."
The officer moved immediately.
The hotel attorney stepped forward.
"Julian, we need to be careful about accusing a senior employee without—"
Julian turned on him.
"Someone used his administrator account to reactivate a dead badge and enter my server room."
"That could still be credential theft."
"Then Logan should be delighted to help us prove it."
The attorney fell silent.
Mason unlocked the server room.
Inside, nothing looked disturbed.
Rows of equipment blinked behind locked cabinets.
The air was cold and dry.
Elena stayed near the doorway.
"What were they trying to get?"
Mason checked the access log.
"The ballroom archive."
Julian's jaw tightened.
"Camera Twelve?"
"All gala cameras."
Dana looked at him.
"Can they erase the originals?"
"Not easily."
Mason began typing at a terminal.
"The archive is mirrored off-site every fifteen minutes."
Julian stared at him.
"Every fifteen?"
"Standard policy."
"Why didn't you mention that last night?"
Mason looked surprised.
"Because the off-site mirror stores encrypted blocks without a user index."
"Can we rebuild it?"
"Maybe."
"How long?"
"I don't know."
Julian pointed toward the screen.
"Start."
Elena looked at Margaret.
The older woman seemed more frightened than before.
"Curtis wouldn't come here."
"You're sure?"
"He told me this hotel was no longer safe for him."
Julian heard her.
"Then someone used his badge to make it look like he did."
Margaret looked at him.
"Logan."
Julian did not answer.
His phone rang.
The caller ID displayed LOGAN PRICE.
Everyone in the server room went still.
Julian answered on speaker.
"Where are you?"
Logan's voice sounded calm.
"You locked my access."
"Where are you?"
"Does it matter?"
"Yes."
"Then I guess you should have trusted me more."
Julian's expression hardened.
"Did you enter the server room using Curtis Lane's badge?"
Logan laughed softly.
"No."
"Did you reactivate it?"
Silence.
"Logan."
"You always were impatient."
Julian gripped the edge of the desk.
"You cloned my ballroom credential."
"I copied a lot of credentials."
Margaret closed her eyes.
Elena felt her stomach turn.
Julian's voice dropped.
"Why?"
"Money."
The simplicity of the answer was almost insulting.
"Victoria paid you?"
"Her attorney's people paid a consulting company."
Dana immediately began writing.
"Name the company."
Logan laughed again.
"Is that Dana Brooks?"
Dana's eyes narrowed.
"Name it."
"Northlight Risk Management."
Dana typed the name into her laptop.
Julian continued.
"What were you hired to do?"
"Keep certain footage from becoming inconvenient."
"Camera Twelve?"
Logan was silent.
"Answer me."
"No."
Julian frowned.
"No?"
"I killed the ballroom display for twenty-seven seconds."
"And took the drive."
"Yes."
"Where is it?"
"Safe."
"From whom?"
"Mostly from you."
Julian's jaw tightened.
"Did you delete the eleven minutes?"
"No."
Everyone looked at one another.
Julian spoke more slowly.
"Then who did?"
"Someone above my pay grade."
"Victoria?"
"She doesn't know how to delete an email without calling an assistant."
Despite everything, Elena almost smiled.
Julian did not.
"Patricia?"
"No."
"Owen?"
"Not from a Mercer server."
"Who?"
Logan exhaled.
"Ask your father."
Julian's face went still.
"What did you say?"
"You heard me."
"My father ordered the deletion?"
"I didn't say that."
"Then say what you mean."
"The administrator token used to remove those eleven minutes belongs to the executive office."
Mason was already checking.
His fingers stopped over the keyboard.
He looked at Julian.
"He's right."
Julian stared at him.
"Whose token?"
Mason swallowed.
"Charles Mercer's master credential."
Margaret whispered something under her breath.
Elena watched Julian absorb the betrayal.
Logan continued speaking through the phone.
"Your family has been protecting important guests for years."
Julian's voice became dangerously quiet.
"Where are you?"
"Far enough away to think clearly."
"If you cooperate now, I can tell the authorities you did."
"Authorities?"
Logan laughed.
"Julian, you still think this is about one rich woman and a necklace."
"Then tell me what it's about."
"It's about how many people get paid to make ugly things disappear."
The call ended.
Julian immediately called his father.
No answer.
He called again.
No answer.
Elena watched him pace once across the server room.
"Julian."
He stopped.
"Don't."
"Don't what?"
"Tell me there's probably an explanation."
Elena nodded slowly.
"I wasn't going to."
Mason raised his hand.
"I found something in the mirror archive."
He displayed a list of deleted file fragments.
"The eleven minutes were removed locally at 8:26 p.m."
"Using my father's token?"
"Yes."
"Where was the token authenticated?"
Mason traced the route.
"Executive office network."
Julian's face hardened.
"My father's office is on the thirty-fourth floor."
Dana looked at him.
"Was he at the gala?"
"No."
"Was he in the hotel?"
Julian called the executive receptionist.
The answer arrived thirty seconds later.
Charles Mercer had entered the building at 7:52 p.m.
He had left at 8:41.
He had never gone downstairs to the ballroom.
Julian turned toward the elevator.
"We're going to his office."
The hotel attorney blocked the door.
"You cannot search the chairman's office without authorization."
Julian stared at him.
"Move."
"I mean it."
"So do I."
Elena stepped between them before the situation became worse.
"You don't need to search it."
Julian looked at her.
"What?"
"If his computer was used, the system already knows what it did."
Mason nodded.
"She's right."
Julian forced himself to stop.
"Then prove it."
Mason began pulling workstation logs.
Several files had been opened from Charles's desktop during the relevant period.
Most were ordinary contracts.
One was not.
Its filename read VICTORIA_PRIVATE_EVENT_REQUEST.
Julian stared at it.
"Open the access record."
Mason did.
The file had been created four days before the gala.
It contained a request to exclude Camera Twelve from a private donor meeting for privacy reasons.
The request had been submitted by Victoria's office.
Charles had approved it.
Julian looked almost relieved.
"So he approved a camera exclusion."
Mason did not share the relief.
"Except the exclusion was supposed to run from 7:30 to 7:45."
"Not 8:14 to 8:26."
"Correct."
Dana leaned closer.
"Could someone reuse the approval token later?"
Mason nodded.
"If they captured the session key."
"Who had access to his machine?"
Julian stared at the screen.
His father's executive assistant had access.
So did senior IT.
So did Logan.
And, according to the visitor log, one other person had entered Charles Mercer's office at 8:03 p.m.
Elena read the name.
May you like
Benjamin Cross.
Victoria's attorney.
