Alexander enlarged every surviving security recording from the previous year.
Someone had erased dozens of files.
Not random files.
Specific nights.
Every deletion occurred while Alexander was traveling.
His security engineer recovered fragments from an off-site backup.
At 1:14 a.m. on March 6, a dark sedan entered through the service gate.
At 1:19, Rebecca opened the side door.
At 1:23, Henry appeared briefly in the upstairs hallway.
At 1:27, the feed ended.
Another fragment from April showed the same vehicle.
May.
July.
September.
Eleven visits.
Alexander felt physically ill.
Someone had been entering his home repeatedly.
His team enhanced one frame.
A tall man stepped from the sedan.
Gray coat.
Baseball cap.
His face remained hidden.
But he wore a distinctive silver watch.
Alexander recognized it.
Not the exact watch.
The model.
A limited-production device developed by Cole Dynamics for early executive testing.
Only twenty-five existed.
Alexander had personally approved every recipient.
The list included senior engineers, board members, investors, and one outside physician.
Dr. Malcolm Reeves.
Alexander immediately called him.
No answer.
Police went to Reeves’s house.
Empty.
His clinic was closed.
Staff claimed he had canceled all appointments and left town before dawn.
Alexander’s suspicion shifted violently.
Had Reeves lied about the medicine?
Had he known exactly what it was?
Claire, the flight attendant, had remained nearby because Alexander asked her to help reconstruct his travel schedule.
She quietly said, “You trusted Rebecca because someone built an identity for her.”
Alexander nodded.
“And Reeves was trusted independently.”
“What if they weren’t independent?”
That thought led him to employee access logs.
Reeves had visited the mansion three times during the last year for legitimate pediatric appointments.
But his credentials had been used thirty-two times.
Most entries occurred after midnight.
Alexander stared at the list.
“Someone cloned his access.”
Or Reeves had given it away.
Henry sat nearby with a child psychologist.
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