Chapter 6 - The Badge Her Father Never Made
Elise locked the archive again and took Antoine into her father's old office.
"Tell me exactly how the badges work."
He shook his head. "I know the modern system. The Founder protocol predates me."
Mireille stood by the door.
"Talk to Luc Renard."
Sébastien's expression hardened. "Luc hasn't worked here in years."
"Because you fired him," Mireille said.
Elise remembered the name.
Luc Renard had been her father's systems engineer.
"Why was he fired?"
"He was obsolete," Sébastien said.
Mireille laughed without humor. "He was sixty-two."
Elise called him.
Luc answered on the fourth ring.
When she mentioned F-03, he went silent.
"Where are you?" he asked.
"At the Domaine."
"Leave."
Elise straightened.
"Why?"
"Because your father only made three badges. I watched him destroy the first. Paris has the second. You have the third. A duplicate should be impossible without the original encryption seed."
"Where was the seed?"
"In the archive."
Elise looked through the glass wall toward Sébastien.
"The archive was breached."
Luc cursed softly.
"Then someone found René's black notebook."
"What notebook?"
"Your father wrote the recovery seed by hand because he didn't trust network storage."
Elise closed her eyes.
Of course he had.
"Can a cloned badge authorize money transfers?"
"Not by itself. It still needs a live executive credential."
"Whose?"
"Yours. Or Sébastien's."
Elise opened her eyes.
Across the office, Sébastien's phone lit on the table.
A message preview appeared before he picked it up.
BLUE WING BANK - FINAL SIGNING MOVED TO 8:00 A.M.
He snatched the phone away.
Too late.
Elise had seen it.
"What happens at eight?"
Sébastien looked at her for a long moment.
May you like
Then the pleasant cousin disappeared.
"A deadline you were never supposed to know about."
