PART 6

A much bigger offer As the operators returned to work, Eleanor stopped me before I packed my laptop.

“I’ve reviewed your invoice.”

I waited.

“It was expensive.”

“Yes.”

“It was also cheaper than losing Meridian.”

She extended a business card.

“Tomorrow morning. Nine o’clock. My office.”

Richard immediately spoke.

“Ms. Grant, we already eliminated Ethan’s position because of restructuring—”

She looked at him.

“No, Richard.”

Her voice remained perfectly calm.

“We eliminated a salary.”

Then she looked back at me.

“I’d like to discuss a contract.”

I glanced at the temporary contractor badge still clipped to my shirt.

“For machine support?”

She smiled faintly.

“For something much larger.”

As I walked toward the exit carrying the same cardboard box I’d held when they fired me, Mason hurried after me.

He lowered his voice.

“Ethan… there’s something you should know.”

I stopped.

He looked over both shoulders to make sure no one was listening.

“Tyler wasn’t the only person in Bay Three at 10:41.”

My grip tightened on the cardboard box.

“Who else was there?”

Mason’s face went pale.

He whispered just three words.

“Richard logged in.”

Richard Cole’s smile disappeared before Mason even finished whispering.

I didn’t answer him immediately.

The factory floor behind us had already come back to life. Forklifts moved between aisles, coolant pumps hummed again, and the green production lights glowed above Bay Three as if nothing extraordinary had happened.

But something had happened.

Someone had tried to destroy Meridian’s qualification run.

And now I knew there were two people connected to the machine within minutes of the failure.

I looked at Mason carefully.

“You’re certain?”

He nodded once.

“I wasn’t supposed to be in Bay Three. I was grabbing torque gauges from Tool Crib Seven. Richard came in first. About two minutes later Tyler walked in.”

“Did they see you?”

“No.”

“What were they doing?”

“I couldn’t hear everything… but Richard said one sentence.”

Mason swallowed.

“Make sure Parker takes the blame.”

Every muscle in my body went still.

Not because it proved Richard had sabotaged the machine.

It didn’t.

It proved something even more dangerous.

There had been a plan.

CONTINUE FOR NEXT PART….