Then Elise’s phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number.
DON’T BOARD FLIGHT 247.
Elise read it once.
Then again.
A second message arrived.
THEY KNOW YOU FOUND THE KEY.
She looked up.
“Who are they?”
The security officer frowned.
“You received something?”
Elise slowly turned the phone toward him.
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Before he could read it, a third message appeared.
THIS WAS NEVER ABOUT SEAT 2A.
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Chapter 2
By the time Elise was allowed back onto the aircraft, Cynthia Hale was gone.
That should have made Elise feel safer.
Instead, it made everything worse.
The airline had removed Cynthia from the passenger list while investigators reviewed the duplicate reservation. The official explanation was that the seat assignment had been generated through an unauthorized corporate travel override.
But the security officer had not returned Cynthia’s phone.
Or her purse.
Or the key.
And Elise had no idea whether Cynthia had actually been escorted away or simply moved somewhere else inside the airport.
At 11:18 p.m., Flight 247 finally pushed back.
Elise sat in 2A.
She stared at the dark runway through the window.
The seat that had started everything suddenly felt like a trap.
The flight attendant approached her.
“Ms. Morgan?”
Elise looked up.
The woman was no longer hostile.
She looked frightened.
“I owe you an apology.”
Elise said nothing.
“I should have checked both passes immediately.”
The attendant glanced down the aisle.
“My name is Mara Bennett.”
“I saw your badge.”
Mara swallowed.
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
“I didn’t recognize you.”
“That isn’t unusual.”
Mara gave a humorless smile.
“No. But I recognized Cynthia.”
Elise’s expression changed.
“You know her?”
“I’ve seen her before.”
“Where?”
“Two months ago. On another flight.”
“Doing what?”
Mara looked toward the galley.
“I’m not supposed to discuss passenger records.”
“Then don’t discuss the records. Tell me what you remember.”
Mara lowered her voice.
“She asked where you were.”
Elise’s heart kicked.
“When?”
“Two months ago.”
“I wasn’t on that flight.”
Elise stared at her.
Mara’s eyes flicked toward 2B.
The seat beside Elise was empty.
“She asked if seat 2A was normally assigned to the same person.”
Elise leaned back.
“That makes no sense.”
“It didn’t to me either.”
“Why would she care?”
Mara hesitated.
“Because somebody had already told her you traveled frequently on this route.”
A chill moved through Elise.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Mara walked away before Elise could stop her.
Elise reached for her phone.
Still no answer from Lena.
Then another name appeared on the screen.
Daniel Price.
Chief Financial Officer.
She answered immediately.
“Daniel.”
“Thank God.”
His voice sounded strained.
“Where are you?”
“On the flight.”
“Are you alone?”
Elise glanced around.
“Why?”
“Because we have a serious problem at the office.”
“What kind?”
“I can’t discuss it over the phone.”
“Then start talking.”
Daniel went silent.
“Elise, someone accessed the Northstar files.”
Her fingers tightened around the phone.
Northstar was the largest acquisition Meridian had attempted that year.
A $2.4 billion deal.
Six months of negotiations.
A single leak could destroy it.
“Who accessed them?”
“We don’t know.”
“Whose credentials?”
Yup.
“Your executive authorization.”
Elise closed her eyes.
“Again?”
Daniel didn’t answer.
“What does that mean?”
“It means this wasn’t the first access.”
She looked out the window.
“How many?”
“Seven.”
Elise sat perfectly still.
“Seven?”
“Seven separate logins. All using your executive token.”
“Where was the access?”
“Chicago facility.”
Her eyes moved to the glass.
The dead facility.
The key.
Cynthia.
Everything connected.
“Daniel, lock down the building.”
“I already did.”
“Everyone?”
“Yourself included?”
Silence.
Elise’s eyes hardened.
“Daniel?”
“I’m trying to help you.”
“I asked whether you had access to the files.”
“I’m CFO. Of course I do.”
“Then change your credentials.”
“I did.”
“Do it again.”
A pause.
Then Daniel said quietly, “There’s something else.”
“A transfer.”
“How much?”
“Four hundred and eighty million dollars.”
Elise felt the air leave her lungs.
“It was initiated tonight.”
“Your authorization.”
She almost laughed.
It came out as a whisper.
“I was at an airport.”
“It was signed at 9:03.”
“I was physically at the gate.”
“Then someone is using my credentials.”
“Where did the money go?”
Daniel hesitated.
“An escrow account.”
Whose?
He whispered the name.
“Northstar Holdings.”
Elise’s face went cold.
That was not the company Meridian was acquiring.
It was a shell entity created eighteen months earlier.
She had seen the name once.
Only once.
Buried in a due-diligence report.