Chapter 104
Chapter 104
Chapter 104
The basement level of Kane Industries glowed with harsh fluorescent light at two in the morning. While most of the building sat dark and empty, the engineering lab hummed with tense activity. Sheets of blueprints covered every surface. Monitors displayed complex circuit diagrams and safety protocols. The air smelled of coffee and
stress.
Hannah Zhao stood at the center of it all, hair pulled back in a messy bun, dark circles under her eyes. She hadn’t gone home in thirty–six hours. Neither had the six engineers she’d personally selected for this shadow team, the only people besides Camille, Alexander, and Victoria who knew about the sabotage of the Phoenix Grid.
“Li, what’s the status on the junction box rewiring?” Hannah asked, not looking up from the circuit board she was examining through a magnifying glass.
Li, a thin man with wire–rimmed glasses, didn’t pause his typing. “Schematics complete. I’ve isolated all fourteen tampered triggers and recalibrated them to the correct specs.”
Hannah nodded, marking something on her tablet. “Good. Park, how about the emergency shutdown protocol?”
Across the room, a woman with short–cropped hair shook her head. “It’s worse than we thought. They didn’t just modify the temperature sensors. They rigged the entire backup system to fail simultaneously instead of in sequence.”
Hannah’s stomach tightened. The sabotage grew more alarming the deeper they dug. This wasn’t just an attempt to cause the Grid to fail, it was designed to make it fail catastrophically, with maximum damage and danger.
A voice spoke from the doorway. “How bad is it?”
Hannah turned to see Camille standing there. Despite the late hour, she looked perfectly put together in a tailored pantsuit, though exhaustion shadowed her eyes.
“Ms. Kane.” Hannah straightened. “We didn’t expect you tonight.”
“I couldn’t sleep.” Camille crossed to the main workstation “Show me what you’ve found.”
Hannah pulled up the master diagram on the main screen. Red marks highlighted each sabotaged component, there were dozens, spread throughout the Grid’s main systems.
“They were… thorough,” Hannah said, trying to keep her voice steady. “Every critical safety system has been compromised in some way. Temperature sensors set too high. Circuit breakers modified to allow power surges. Backup systems designed to fail.”
Camille’s face remained composed, but Hannah saw her hands clench at her sides. “And the result?”
“If the Grid went online with these modifications…” Hannah paused, the words sticking in her throat. “The main junction boxes would overheat within seventy–two hours. The safety systems would report everything functioning normally even as temperatures reached dangerous levels. When the system finally failed, it would trigger a cascading power surge through the entire grid.”
“Explosions?” Camille asked softly.
Hannah nodded, “Multiple sites. Simultaneous. The downtown power grid would go down conîpletely. And the public record would show that Kane Industries knowingly implemented a flawed system.”
A muscle twitched in Camille’s jaw, the only sign of the anger she must be feeling.
“But we’re fixing it,” Hannah added quickly. “We’ve already corrected the blueprint modifications. We’re now
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implementing physical changes to counteract any hardware that’s already been installed according to the sabotaged plans.”
“And no one outside this room knows what we’re doing?” Camille surveyed the small team.
“No one.” Hannah lowered her voice. “We’re logging all our work as routine pre–launch inspections. The construction teams think we’re just being extra thorough.”
Camille’s gaze swept over the exhausted engineers. “You’re all taking an enormous risk. Rose and her partner have already shown they’re willing to hurt people to get what they want.”
The room fell silent. Until now, no one had openly acknowledged the danger they might be in.
“We believe in the Phoenix Grid,” Hannah said after a moment. “And we believe in you, Ms. Kane.”
Something flickered across Camille’s face, surprise, perhaps, or a deeper emotion Hannah couldn’t name. She turned away quickly, examining one of the circuit boards.
“How soon can the corrections be completed?” Camille asked.
Hannah checked her timeline. “Three more nights, if we work straight through. We need to replace forty–three physical components that have already been installed.”
“And what about James Walsh?” Camille asked, referring to the electrician they’d identified as Rose’s mole.
“We’re… handling him carefully.” Hannah pulled up a security feed on her tablet, showing a middle–aged man with thinning ginger hair installing components at one of the secondary Grid sites. “We’ve kept him assigned to non–critical systems. Everything he installs gets quietly removed and replaced after his shift ends.”
Camille nodded, satisfaction briefly crossing her features. “Good. And he’s still reporting to Rose?”
“According to Mr. Pierce’s surveillance, yes. Daily updates. Hannah hesitated, then added, “He has no idea we’re onto him, or that we’re correcting the sabotage.”
“Keep it that way,” Camille said. “We need Rose and her partner to believe their plan is working.”
**
James Walsh wiped sweat from his forehead as he finished installing the modified circuit board. His hands shook slightly, they always did now, ever since he’d gotten involved in this mess. The empty construction site felt eerie at night, lit only by temporary work lights that cast long shadows across the unfinished walls.
The job had seemed straightforward when he’d agreed to it. A man claiming to represent one of Kane Industries‘ competitors had approached him with an offer: make some small modifications to the Phoenix Grid components, get paid fifty thousand dollars. Enough to finally pay off his ex–wife’s medical bills, enough to maybe start seeing his kids again.
“Just delay the project,” the man had said. “Nothing dangerous. Just enough problems to give our company time to catch up:”
But as the modifications grew more extensive, Walsh had begun to suspect that wasn’t true. Still, he couldn’t back out. Not after the man’s subtle threats about his children. Not after accepting the first payment.
He closed the access panel and packed up his tools. One more component installed according to the modified blueprints. One step closer to being done with this nightmare.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. Walsh jumped, nearly dropping his toolbox. His heart hammered as he checked
the caller ID: UNKNOWN.
With trembling fingers, he answered. “Hello?“.
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“Progress report.” The man’s voice was smooth, cultured, Betraying no hint of emotion.
Walsh swallowed hard. “Installed the J–14 connector tonight, just like the blueprints showed. That’s the last one in the east section.”
“And has anyone questioned your work?”
“No,” Walsh said, the lie coming easily now after weeks of practice. “The engineering team is focused on the main grid. No one’s double–checking the secondary systems.”
“Excellent.” The man paused. “Any unusual activity at the site? Security changes? Late–night work?”
Walsh hesitated. He had noticed some of the day crew grumbling about equipment being moved overnight, but he’d assumed it was just another team working different hours.
“No,” he said finally. “Everything’s normal.”
“Good. Continue as planned. Remember, Mr. Walsh, your children’s future depends on your discretion.”
The line went dead. Walsh stared at the phone, bile rising in his throat. What had he gotten himself into?
*****
Back at the Kane Industries lab, Hannah’s team worked in focused silence. On the main screen, a digital countdown displayed the days until the Phoenix Grid was scheduled to go fully operational: 5 days, 7 hours, 42 minutes.
Hannah moved between workstations, checking progress, making adjustments. Despite her exhaustion, her mind remained sharp. This was the most challenging engineering problem she’d ever faced, not just correcting the technical sabotage, but doing it in secret, maintaining the illusion that everything was proceeding normally.
“Ms. Zhao?” One of the younger engineers called her over, pointing to a circuit diagram. “I think I found another one. It’s subtle, but the power regulator has been modified to allow a ten percent tolerance instead of the standard five percent.”
Hannah examined the component. “Good catch, Davis. Flag it for replacement and add it to the shadow correction log.”
As she straightened, a wave of dizziness swept over her. Hannah gripped the edge of the table, waiting for it to pass. When was the last time she’d eaten? Slept? The days had begun to blur together.
A hand touched her shoulder gently. She turned to find Camille watching her with concern.
“You need rest,” Camille said quietly. “All of you do.”
Hannan shook her head. “We can’t stop now. Every hour counts.”
“I know.” Camille’s voice was firm but kind. “But I need your team functioning at their best. Four hours of sleep will make you more effective than twelve more hours of exhausted work.”
“But…”
“That’s an order, Ms. Zhao.” Camille’s tone softened. “The cots are set up in the conference room. Use them. Four hours. Then back to work.”
Hannah wanted to argue, but the logic was sound. They couldn’t afford mistakes. And mistakes were inevitable with this level of fatigue..
“Yes, Ms. Kane. Four hours.” She turned to the team. “Everyone, mandatory rest. Davis, set the alarm for six a.m.”
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As the engineers filed out, Hannah found herself alone with Camille, who was studying the master diagram with its many red marks.
“We’ll make it,” Hannah said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. “We’ll catch everything they sabotaged.”
Camille nodded, but her expression remained troubled. “I believe you will. But I can’t help wondering…”
“What?”
“What if this is exactly what they want?” Camille gestured to the busy workroom. “What if the sabotage we’ve discovered is just a distraction from something else they’re planning?”
The question sent a chill through Hannah’s already tired body. She hadn’t considered that possibility.
“Like what?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” Camille’s eyes focused on something distant. “But Rose has always been ten steps ahead. Always planning for contingencies. And her partner, Herod Preston… Victoria says he’s patient. Calculating.”
Hannah thought about the complexity of the sabotage they’d uncovered. The meticulous way safety systems had been compromised. The careful organization required to implement so many changes without detection. “You think this might not be their real plan?” she asked, her throat suddenly dry.
“I think we can’t afford to assume we’ve discovered everything.” Camille turned to her, eyes hard with resolve. ” Fix what we’ve found, Hannah. But keep looking deeper. And be prepared for something we haven’t anticipated.” Hannah nodded, a new worry joining her exhaustion. “I understand.”
As Camille left, Hannah remained standing before the master diagram, staring at the red marks that signified discovered sabotage. But now, instead of progress, the marks seemed to taunt her. What weren’t they seeing? What hidden threat still lurked in the system they’d designed with such care?
She forced herself to turn away. Four hours of rest. Then back to the search.
But as she made her way to the conference room, Hannah couldn’t shake the feeling that something still eluded them. Something deadly hiding in plain sight.
****
In a penthouse across the city, Rose checked her phone as it chimed with an incoming message. The screen displayed a simple text from a now–familiar number: “Component J–14 installed. All proceeding as planned.” She smiled, setting the phone down on the nightstand. Beside her, Herod slept peacefully, his face relaxed in a way it never was when he was awake.
Everything was falling into place. In just over five days, the Phoenix Grid would go online. Seventy–two hours after that, Camille’s precious project would implode spectacularly. And in the aftermath, Kane Industries would crumble.
Rose reached over and switched off the lamp, darkness enveloping the room. As she settled back against the pillows, she allowed herself to imagine Camille’s face when her world collapsed around her. The same expression Rose had worn when Camille returned from the dead as Victoria Kane’s heir. When she’d systematically destroyed everything Rose had built.
Soon, very soon, the scales would balance. Justice would be served.
And neither Camille nor Victoria would see it coming.
