Chương 14
I sighed.
"Fine."
The monitor beeped.
A nurse appeared almost immediately.
She looked at the strip.
Then at me.
"Another contraction?"
"Yes."
"How strong?"
"Manageable."
She pressed a button on the monitor and adjusted the belt.
"Dr. Alvarez wants another fluid bolus."
"Wonderful."
"Your enthusiasm is inspiring."
She connected the IV.
Marcus stepped back to give her room.
His phone buzzed again.
He read the incoming message while the nurse worked.
This time his face went completely still.
I knew that stillness.
It was worse than alarm.
"What?"
He waited until the nurse left.
"One of the recovered shredded strips has a Calder letterhead."
"That doesn't mean anything."
"No."
"Could be any document."
"Yes."
"What else?"
He turned the phone so I could see the photograph sent by the federal liaison.
Only part of a page had been reconstructed.
Three lines were legible.
The first contained my name.
The second contained Elena Park's.
The third contained a date.
Yesterday.
I stared at it.
Marcus did not speak.
Neither did I.
Then I noticed something he had missed.
"Zoom in."
He enlarged the image.
"Lower right corner."
A tiny fragment of a signature was visible.
Not mine.
Not Elena's.
I knew that handwriting.
I had seen it on birthday cards, condolence flowers, Christmas gifts, and six years of notes left beside the coffee machine.
Jonathan's.
And directly above it, half a sentence survived the shredder.
Upon successful completion of the Zephyr contingency.
For a moment, neither of us said anything.
The phrase sat on the screen like a trap someone had left half-open.
"Successful completion of what?"
Marcus enlarged the image again.
"That's all they recovered from that strip."
"Zephyr contingency."
"Yes."
"Jonathan knew the project name."
Marcus looked at me.
"He shouldn't have."
"No."
"Who outside the development team had access to it?"
"Very few."
"Elena did."
"Obviously."
"You did."
"Obviously."
"Owen?"
"Operational briefing only."
"Anyone in legal?"
I thought about export-control reviews, liability drafts, provisional patent filings, internal risk assessments.
"Caroline."
Marcus's expression tightened.
"Anyone else?"
"Possibly Bell, if Jonathan's lawyers ever reviewed my estate exposure to experimental programs."
"Would they?"
"Not unless someone gave them a reason."
The fetal monitor clicked softly beneath the silence.
I looked at Elena's name on the reconstructed page.
"Call her."
Marcus did not move.
"Now?"
"Now."
He hesitated only long enough for me to notice.
"You think she's involved."
"I think her name is on a shredded document in a missing lawyer's office."
"That isn't the same thing."
"I know."
"Good."
He dialed from the secure phone.
Elena answered on the third ring.
Her voice was thick with sleep.
"Marcus?"
"Where are you?"
A pause.
"Home."
"Alone?"
Another pause.
"That is a deeply weird question at one in the morning."
"Answer it."
"Yes."
I held out my hand.
Marcus passed me the phone.
"Elena."
She came fully awake.
"Victoria?"
"I'm fine."
"No, you're not."
"Fair."
I looked at the photograph again.
"I need you to answer something without thinking about why I'm asking."
"That sentence guarantees I'm going to think about why you're asking."
"Who knew the name Zephyr outside your engineering group?"
Silence.
"Why?"
"Answer."
"Executive leadership, eventually."
"Eventually when?"
"We discussed deployment architecture with legal last month."
"Who in legal?"
"Caroline and two compliance people."
"Names."
She gave them.
Neither was David Bell.
"Anyone external?"
"No."
"You are sure?"
"Yes."
I heard fabric rustle as she moved.
"Victoria, what happened?"
"Did Jonathan ever ask you about Zephyr?"
Another silence.
Longer.
My chest tightened.
"Elena."
"Once."
Marcus looked at me.
"When?"
"Maybe three weeks ago."
"What did he ask?"
"He was waiting for you after a board dinner."
"At headquarters?"
"Yes."
"I saw him near the prototype bay."
"What exactly did he say?"
"He asked why everyone was making jokes about parachutes in an aerospace company."
My stomach turned.
"What did you tell him?"
"Nothing technical."
"How did he know the word Zephyr?"
"He said he'd heard you mention it."
"I never discussed it with him."
Elena went quiet.
Then, very carefully, "I told him it was a low-altitude emergency-descent concept."
Marcus closed his eyes.
"Anything else?"
"No specifications."
"Did you tell him it was wearable?"
Another pause.
"Yes."
"Did you tell him I had tested it?"
"No."
"That it could fit under clothing?"
"No."
"Elena."
"I didn't."
Her defensiveness sharpened.
"I made a stupid assumption that your husband was allowed to know the general purpose of your own program."
She was angry now.
Good.
Anger sounded more believable than perfect cooperation.
"I am not accusing you."
"It sounds exactly like an accusation."
"I am asking because your name is on a document recovered from Bell's office."
The line went dead quiet.
"What document?"
"We don't know yet."
"Why is my name on it?"
"I don't know."
"Send it."
"No."
"Victoria."
"Nobody gets it yet."
"Then why call me?"
"Because I need your memory, not your access."
I heard her breathing.
"Fine."
"Did Jonathan ever ask you about the failsafes?"
"No."
"Pregnancy?"
"No."
"Deployment conditions?"
"No."
"Then what could 'Zephyr contingency' mean to him?"
"I have no idea."
A beat passed.
Then Elena said, "Unless it doesn't mean the vest."
Marcus leaned toward the phone.
"What?"
"Zephyr was also an internal designation for a continuity protocol."
I stared at him.
"Since when?"
"Before the wearable system took the name."
My voice hardened.
"Explain."
"When Project Zephyr was just a research umbrella, finance used the same code for catastrophic executive loss."
"Why?"
"Because the first grant tied emergency survivability systems to executive continuity planning for defense contracts."
Marcus swore quietly.
"Who handled that continuity protocol?"
Elena answered.
"Legal."
The room felt suddenly colder.
"Caroline?"
"Yes."
Marcus took the phone.
"Stay home."
"Marcus—"
"Stay home."
He disconnected.
I looked at him.
"Get Caroline."
"Calling her now."
She answered almost immediately.
This time there was traffic noise behind her.
"Where are you?"
"Parking garage at Calder."
"Leave."
"What?"
"Do not go upstairs."
"Victoria, I'm already here."
"Get back in the car."
May you like
Silence.
Then a car door opened.
