Chapter 101

The clock on Camille's office wall

ticked past eleven. Most of Kane Industries had emptied hours ago, but Camille, couldn't rest, not with Victoria's revelations about Herod Preston still echoing in her mind.

A soft knock pulled her from her thoughts.

"Come in," she called.

Hannah Zhao, the Phoenix Grid's chief engineer, entered clutching a stack of rolled blueprints. Her normally neat appearance had frayed, hair escaping its bun, dark circles under her eyes.

"Ms. Kane, I'm sorry to bother you so late, but..." Hannah hesitated.

Camille motioned to the chair across from her desk. "It's fine. What's wrong?"

Hannah sat, placing the blueprints between them. "I've been going over these since the groundbreaking ceremony.

She unrolled the top sheet. "Something feels... off."

"Off how?"

"After finding those modifications to the safety protocols last week, I started comparing

every version of the blueprints."

She pointed to a section showing the Grid's main junction box. "This is what I designed originally," Hannah said, then unrolled a second blueprint. "And this is what's currently on file for construction." To Camille's untrained eye, they looked identical.

"What am I missing?" she asked.

Hannah retrieved a magnifying glass. "Look at the temperature sensors here, here, and here. The specifications are off by tiny increments. Half a millimeter in placement. Two degrees in the trigger threshold. A Camille examined the areas Hannah indicated. "These are very small changes."

"Individually, yes. But collectively? These modifications would allow the junction boxes to overheat without triggering the emergency shutdown protocols. The system would continue operating as if everything we

"How dangerous?"

Hannah met her eyes directly. "Catastrophic failure. Potential explosions at multiple sites. Massive power outages. And the modifications would make it look like design flaws, like Kane Industries had built an inh Camille sat back, the implications hitting her. This wasn't just sabotage, it was

character assassination.

"When did you first notice these discrepancies?" Camille asked.

"I caught some before the groundbreaking, the ones I showed you and Mr. Pierce last week. We fixed those. But these are different. More subtle. It's like someone went through twice, making different kinds of o Or two different people made changes," Camille murmured, thinking of Rose and Herod.

"Maybe." Hannah looked uneasy. "What I can't figure out

how anyone got access. Our system requires multiple authorizations, biometric verification...."

Chapter 101

"Someone on the inside." Camille stood abruptly. "Keep this between us for now. I'm calling Mr. Pierce, and then we're going through every blueprint. Every specification."

"That could take all night," Hannah said.

nodded grimly. "Then we'd better

****

of the floor. Hannah had sketched diagrams on the glass wall with erasa Alexander had arrived within thirty minutes of

a focused intensity. He

on the floor, comparing

mark to

safety systems," Alexander added. "Nothing that would affect performance during testing or initial

wanted it to fail spectacularly. After

her eyes. "After

blueprint. "They focus

existing power grid.

"Maximum blame on

to identify who made these changes. Every modification

pulling out her laptop. "I can run a trace. But if they were smart enough to access the system..." "They were

as they leaned over the same

of this technical

head. "Not likely. But Herod might. Or

the construction crew. Someone with

blueprint access from authorized terminals, but at odd

her screen

these timestamps 2:14 AM. 3:47 AM. No one from the engineering

was here."

"Stolen credentials," Alexander suggested.

at this entry. The biometric scan registered as Louis Brown, one of our senior electricians. At 4: 30 AM on a Sunday."

Chapter 101

system uses multiple validation points, fingerprint, retinal

Louis is involved, or someone forced him to provide access." "Either way, we

is working

Alexander finished. "But we also can't

remain in the

between them. "I can create a new

specifications. Upload them as

rather than flagging the current

work?"

"It's standard procedure

one would question it."

"But keep the

need to watch Walsh without alerting him. If

Rose and

need to check every other system. If

sabotage was comprehensive, clearly the work of someone with both technical knowledge and acces By three in the morning, Hannah had uploaded corrected

own resources to avoid potential

at the glass wall

to destroy the Grid, she'd tried to destroy Camille's reputation, her future, possibly her freedom if the failures had been blamed on "We should get some

Camille collapsed onto her office sofa. The weight of everything,

Herod, the blueprint sabotage, the knowledge that someone inside Kane Industries had betrayed them, crushed

hand. "We caught it in time. The Grid is

time," Camille said. "But Rose and Herod won't stop. They'll try

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