Page 43 of Mountain Security

While Yvette spoke to Celine and the night guard, who had stayed behind even though his shift was over, Alex had immediately opened up his laptop, bringing up the video feed.

He couldn’t wait to see the bastard who—

There was nothing there.

He closed the program and checked a few settings before opening it up again, but the sour feeling settling in his stomach told him the truth.

There was no video.

Anger—hot and rancid—filled him. While he’d been off cavorting with Yvette, their best chance of catching whoever was behind the theft had vanished.

Fuck.

Fuck.

“Anything?” Yvette asked, her voice tentative.

Alex forced himself to take a deep breath before replying.

“The video’s not here.”

“The cameras aren’t working?”

He turned his laptop so she could see it. “The cameras work fine. Somebody logged into the system and disabled them for a period between three and four a.m.”

“But who …”

“I’m sorry, Yvette,” Alex said. “I completely underestimated the technical capabilities of whoever is behind this.” Alex wanted to kick something. “Shit.”

Yvette shook her head. “This isn’t your fault, Alex.”

“Of course it is. This is precisely what you brought me in for. And now we’ve lost our best chance of finding whoever is behind this.”

“What about the data?”

He waved away her concern. “That’s alright. A few days ago, I deleted the data the keylogger had recorded and replaced it with fake data. It’ll take them a while to sort through it, and they won’t get anything out of it.”

“That’s good news, then,” she said cautiously.

He nodded, only just stopped himself from huffing. “Yes, that’s good news. I’m just … I’m just angry at myself,” he said, feeling intensely vulnerable.

“Please don’t blame yourself. It would have been nice to catch him like this, but we’ll find a different way.”

“Do you always look for the bright side of things?”

Yvette laughed. Her dark curls shook. “I’m not so concerned with the bright side, Alex. I’m usually just looking for the way forward.” She thought for a second. Instant later, her brow furrowed.

“You said they disabled the cameras …”

“Yes. I think they disabled the cameras and strolled inside. Which means—

“It means they knew about the cameras,” Yvette finished, her brow furrowed. “But how? We just put them up on Friday.”

The answer was obvious, of course. Yvette just didn’t want to believe it. Somebody from inside this office was involved.

* * *

Yvette

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