Chapter 4 - The Missing Authorization
Mara stared at the screen.
“That is not me.”
Viktor stood beside her without speaking.
“It is not me.”
“I know.”
She turned sharply.
“How?”
“The person is taller.”
That was not enough.
Mara looked again.
The figure wore a Sterling House server jacket and moved confidently through Daniel’s office.
Her employee keycard had apparently opened the door.
“I still have my key.”
“Check.”
Mara reached into her apron.
The plastic card was gone.
Her stomach tightened.
“I used it before dinner service.”
“When?”
“Around six.”
“After that?”
“I don’t know.”
Anton tapped the screen.
“Someone copied the credentials.”
“Can they do that?”
“Yes.”
“Great.”
Viktor paced once across the room.
“How long until the council reconnects?”
“Seven minutes.”
“And the certified document?”
“Daniel’s office safe.”
Mara frowned.
“How do you know?”
Anton showed another camera angle.
The intruder had opened the safe, inserted something, closed it, then left.
“Why put it there?” Mara asked.
Viktor answered immediately.
“To frame someone.”
“Daniel?”
“Or you.”
Mara laughed once without humor.
“That’s wonderful.”
Viktor looked at Anton.
“Send two people to retrieve it.”
“No.”
Both men turned toward her.
Mara held up a hand.
“If someone planted that document in Daniel’s office and used my credentials, then your people storming into Sterling House will accomplish exactly what whoever planned this wants.”
Viktor’s eyes narrowed.
“Explain.”
“They want you to react.”
“To what purpose?”
“To make Daniel look connected to you. Or guilty. Or frightened. Maybe they want him to run.”
Anton exchanged a glance with Viktor.
Mara continued.
“You said this Pierce person prepared everything carefully. Why would he hide the document somewhere you could find it so easily?”
Viktor’s expression shifted.
“He would not.”
“Then the document in Daniel’s office is probably not the real one.”
Anton checked the screen again.
“Could be altered.”
Viktor turned to Mara.
“What would you do?”
The question surprised her.
Thirty minutes earlier he had tried ordering her into a car.
Now he was asking.
“I’d call Daniel.”
“On speaker.”
She did.
Daniel answered immediately.
“Mara? Where are you?”
“With Viktor.”
A pause.
“I was hoping I misunderstood that part of my evening.”
“Daniel, listen carefully. Is anyone in your office?”
Another pause.
“No.”
“Has anyone been?”
“I don’t know. Why?”
“Don’t go in.”
“Mara.”
“Please.”
Something in her voice convinced him.
“All right.”
“Do you have a safe?”
“Yes.”
“Did you open it tonight?”
“No.”
Viktor gestured.
Mara continued.
“Who knows the code?”
“Me. The owner. You.”
Mara froze.
“I know the code?”
“You entered it when I broke my wrist last winter.”
She remembered.
Daniel had asked her to retrieve payroll envelopes.
“Who else saw?”
Silence.
Then Daniel said, “Sebastian Pierce.”
Viktor stepped closer.
Mara looked at him.
“What?”
Daniel continued.
“He was having dinner here that night. Private room two. He was standing behind the service station when I gave you the code.”
Viktor’s face hardened.
Mara asked, “Why was Pierce at Sterling House?”
“He eats here.”
“Frequently?”
“Twice a month.”
Viktor took Mara’s phone.
“When was his last reservation?”
Daniel recognized the voice immediately.
“Mr. Kovacs?”
“When?”
“Tuesday.”
“With whom?”
“I can check.”
“Do it.”
He handed the phone back.
Mara glared.
“You could say please.”
“When there is time.”
“There is always time.”
Viktor sighed.
“Please.”
“That sounded painful.”
“A little.”
Daniel returned.
“He booked under another name.”
“What name?”
“Jonathan Reed.”
Anton swore quietly.
Viktor looked toward him.
“You know it?”
“One of Pierce’s shell-company attorneys.”
The tension changed.
Pieces were beginning to connect.
Daniel spoke again.
“There’s something else.”
“What?” Mara asked.
“Pierce wasn’t alone Tuesday.”
“Who was with him?”
“I don’t know his name. Older Hungarian man. Silver hair.”
Mara slowly looked toward the dead video screen.
Andras Kovacs.
Viktor’s uncle.
The man who chaired the council.
The man who had recognized Ilona Nagy’s name.
Viktor did not speak for several seconds.
Then the conference screen flickered back to life.
One by one, the council members returned.
Andras appeared last.
“Technical failure,” he said.
Viktor’s eyes were glacial.
“Was it?”
Andras paused.
“What are you suggesting?”
Viktor walked to the table.
“That we postpone the vote.”
“We cannot.”
“You can.”
“The charter—”
“The charter has apparently been mistranslated for decades.”
Andras looked toward Mara.
“Then let the young woman provide evidence.”
Mara felt every face watching.
She swallowed.
“The provision requires authentication. If the certified copy can be verified independently, it is valid.”
Andras leaned closer to his camera.
“And where is this certified copy?”
Viktor answered.
“Somewhere safe.”
Andras’s expression barely moved.
But Mara saw it.
Disappointment.
He had expected Viktor to say Sterling House.
That was enough.
Viktor saw it too.
The countdown reached five minutes.
Then Andras said something strange.
“Viktor, perhaps you should ask Miss Ellis what her grandmother did with the second page.”
Mara’s blood went cold.
“What second page?”
Andras looked directly into the camera.
“Ilona Nagy knew.”
Viktor leaned forward.
“Knew what?”
“The document you are fighting over tonight was never complete.”
A silence settled across the screens.
Andras continued.
“There is an additional covenant. Your father hid it twelve years ago.”
“Why?”
“Because if the council ever saw it, none of us would be voting tonight.”
Mara stared at him.
“Where is it?”
The old man smiled sadly.
“If Ilona followed instructions, your family has had it all along.”
“My family?”
Andras nodded.
“Your mother knew where to look.”
Mara’s heart stopped for half a beat.
“My mother died fourteen months ago.”
Andras closed his eyes.
“I know.”
That was the moment Mara realized this was no longer Viktor Kovacs’s story.
Somehow, impossibly, it had become hers too.
May you like
And hidden somewhere among the belongings of the woman she had buried fourteen months earlier might be the one document powerful men had spent twelve years trying to find.
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