Chapter 12 - The Fourth Badge
The fire crew contained B17 before it reached the servers.
Most of the paper records were ruined.
The fourth badge survived.
Luc Renard arrived at 2:10 A.M. in an old raincoat and looked at it under a magnifying lamp.
"This isn't a clone," he said.
Elise frowned. "You said my father made three."
"He did."
Luc turned the badge over.
"Someone manufactured this later using the original die. See the edge? Different alloy."
"Who had the die?"
"Your father kept it with the recovery seed."
"In the archive."
"Yes."
Antoine pulled up the system events.
The fourth badge had been used nineteen times.
Every time, it paired with an executive credential belonging to Elise.
Elise's stomach tightened.
"How did they get my credential?"
Luc asked, "Have you used the board portal on hotel Wi-Fi?"
"Once. Last spring."
Antoine checked the authentication history.
There it was.
A session token captured eleven months ago.
Someone had waited nearly a year before using it.
"Patient," Vincent said.
"Or scared," Elise replied.
Luc opened the badge casing.
Inside, beneath the chip, was a tiny engraved mark.
VD.
She recoiled.
"No."
Sébastien smiled.
"There is your thief."
Victoire shook her head violently.
"He gave it to me."
"Who?"
"Sébastien."
"Liar."
"He told me it was an emergency master for guest systems. I used it twice because he told me to."
Elise watched Sébastien.
"Why engrave her initials?"
Luc answered before he could.
"Because whoever made it wanted the badge found eventually."
A planted weapon.
A future scapegoat.
Victoire covered her face.
Then Mireille, who had been silent near the door, spoke.
"If he planned to blame her, maybe he planned to blame someone else too."
Elise looked at the burned room.
Then at the authorization logs carrying her name.
May you like
She understood.
"Me."
