Within minutes, Howard arranged a controlled piece of misinformation.
A trusted staff member left Edward’s office carrying an emergency medical bag.
Another closed the executive hallway doors.
Word was allowed to travel no farther than necessary: Edward Whitmore had suffered a sudden medical crisis and the eleven o’clock board meeting was uncertain.
In the garage, the man in gray checked his phone.
Then he smiled.
Howard froze the footage.
“There.”
The man immediately made a call.
Federal investigators were already tracing the number through emergency legal channels.
Edward wanted to go downstairs himself.
Howard refused.
“You are the target.
For once in your life, behave like one.”
Edward gave him a cold look.
Howard did not blink.
Marcus’s mother looked as if she could not believe anyone spoke to Edward Whitmore that way.
Marcus looked delighted.
The gray-suited man was arrested before he could drive out of the garage.
Inside his jacket, investigators found the small brown bottle Marcus had described.
His fingerprints were absent from it.
Marcus had even been right about that.
He had wiped it clean.
But the man had made other mistakes.
The stolen access credential was in his pocket.
His phone contained encrypted messages.
And although he initially refused to speak, investigators found the first real break in the case inside his vehicle.
A second phone.
It had only one active conversation.
Most of the messages were coded, but the latest was simple.
Is it done?
The gray-suited man had replied only minutes earlier.
Looks that way.
Howard received the information shortly before ten-thirty.
“Can they identify the other number?” Edward asked.
“They’re working on it.”
Edward looked toward the boardroom doors down the hall.
“Then the meeting stays at eleven.”
Howard stared at him.
“Edward.”
“If this is about the vote, whoever arranged it expects me not to walk into that room.”
“And that makes walking into the room a terrible security decision.”
“It also makes it useful.”
Howard muttered something under his breath.
Edward almost smiled.
At 10:52, Marcus and his mother were moved to a secure conference room nearby under guard.
Before Marcus left Edward’s office, Edward stopped him.
“You asked me whether somebody was really trying to hurt me.”
Marcus nodded.
“Yes,” Edward said.
“They were.”
The boy looked at the floor.
Edward continued, “And you stopped them.”
Marcus looked up.
“I only told you about the coffee.”
“That was enough.”
