Chapter 5 - The Director’s Secret
Every person in the boardroom turned toward Martin.
He remained standing beside the display screen, his face unreadable.
Rebecca watched him carefully.
Martin Ellison had known her since she was a child. He had served as her father’s research director, her family’s physician, and later the director of St. Catherine’s Hospital.
He was the first person she had called when Rosie became ill.
Now his credential had been connected to the missing medicine.
“Explain,” Rebecca said.
Martin approached the table.
“I did not remove that container.”
“Was your credential stolen?”
“No.”
“Shared?”
“No.”
Blake laughed.
“This is your trusted man, Rebecca. Perhaps you should investigate your own people before destroying my reputation.”
Rebecca ignored him.
“Martin, how could someone use your authorization?”
“There are three legacy credentials attached to my executive profile.”
“Who has access to them?”
“No one living.”
The last word filled the room.
Rebecca’s voice became quieter.
“Whose credentials were they?”
“One belonged to your father.”
No one moved.
Gideon Alden had been dead for eighteen years.
Martin asked Lena to display the encrypted identification string recovered from the courier system.
The string was incomplete, but six characters were visible.
G. A. 0. 1.
“Gideon Alden’s primary authorization,” Martin said. “The first executive credential issued by the company.”
Rebecca looked at the screen.
“Why was it never deleted?”
“Your father prohibited the destruction of founder-level records.”
“He could not prohibit anything after his death.”
“He built the security architecture. Some permissions cannot be removed without opening the original Alden archive.”
The unknown caller’s message returned to Blake’s mind.
Make sure she opens the Alden archive.
He lowered his eyes before anyone noticed his reaction.
Rebecca did notice.
“What do you know about the archive?” she asked.
Blake looked up.
“Nothing.”
“You reacted to the name.”
“I reacted because this meeting has become insane.”
Rebecca turned to Martin.
“What is inside it?”
“I do not know.”
“You worked with my father for twenty years.”
“He kept parts of the company separate even from me.”
“And the archive?”
“It is located beneath the original Alden research center.”
Gregory shifted uncomfortably.
“That building has been closed since the plane crash.”
“It was not closed,” Martin said. “It was sealed.”
Rebecca remembered the research center from the old photograph in her bedroom. She had not visited it since the week before her father’s death.
“Why?”
Martin looked at the directors before answering.
“Because Gideon believed someone inside Alden Medical was stealing restricted research and selling it through private networks.”
“Vesper,” Rebecca said.
“We did not know the name then.”
Blake’s attorney interrupted.
“This history has nothing to do with the allegations against my client.”
“It has everything to do with them,” Rebecca said. “Someone used my father’s credential to move my daughter’s medicine.”
Marissa suddenly pushed her chair back.
“I want protection.”
Her attorney tried to stop her.
Marissa ignored him.
“I will tell you everything I know, but I want written protection from Blake and from Vesper.”
Blake’s face changed.
“Be careful.”
Marissa looked at him.
“You told me Vesper was only a consulting company.”
“It is.”
“You told me no patients would be harmed.”
“No patients were harmed.”
“Rosie could have been.”
“That was not supposed to happen.”
The confession escaped before Blake realized it.
Rebecca’s eyes fixed on him.
“What was supposed to happen?”
Blake looked around the room.
His attorney whispered urgently, but Blake no longer seemed to hear him.
Marissa answered.
“The dose was supposed to disappear for six hours.”
Rebecca felt cold.
“Why?”
“To create an emergency.”
“For what purpose?”
Marissa looked toward the windows.
“Blake received instructions from someone at Vesper. They said Rebecca would contact a person named Martin. Martin would activate a hidden supply reserve, and that activation would connect Rebecca’s ordinary identity to the Alden network.”
Rebecca remembered the encrypted message.
Welcome back, Ms. Alden.
“You were trying to expose me,” she said.
Blake shook his head.
“I did not know you were Alden.”
“But someone else did.”
“They told me you were connected to Northstar. They said if I forced you to use your emergency authority, I would gain leverage over the trust.”
“What leverage?”
“A recording of you secretly controlling medical supplies while pretending to be an ordinary consultant.”
Rebecca almost laughed at the stupidity of it.
“You thought exposing my ownership would give you control?”
“I thought it would invalidate our marriage agreement.”
“And allow you to claim fraud.”
Blake said nothing.
Marissa continued.
“The plan changed when Rosie became sicker than expected. Blake panicked. He gave me the container and told me to hide it.”
“The unopened container,” Rebecca said.
“Yes.”
“Then who replaced the original medicine with saline?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who collected the real dose from your apartment?”
“I never called a courier.”
Lena placed another image on the screen.
Security footage showed a courier entering Marissa’s building at eight fourteen the previous night.
His face was hidden beneath a cap.
On his jacket was the emblem of Alden Medical Group.
Martin studied the image.
“That uniform was discontinued fifteen years ago.”
The courier looked directly toward the camera before entering the elevator.
For one frame, his face became visible.
Rebecca stepped closer to the screen.
She recognized the eyes.
Not the man.
The eyes.
They were the same eyes she saw whenever she looked in a mirror.
Martin whispered her name.
Rebecca did not answer.
May you like
The courier was too young to be Gideon Alden.
But on his right hand, he wore her father’s ring.
