Prodigal Son

Chapter 24

Felicity let herself get lost in the code. This was what she needed to forget about her guilt in Kaplan's death. There had been nothing directly she could do for Tommy, so she began work on breaking through the restrictions placed on the project number belonging to the mystery crates. They'd found their connection between George Patel and the list. Maybe the bigger mystery would shed some light on his death.

She was at melon ball scooper levels of security and while they probably had one at the mansion, it seemed rude to use her host's kitchenware against her. Her alternative was either persuading Moira to go to QC to use the retinal scanner to unlock the file or convince QC's computer's system that she had. Felicity was about five more minutes of coding away from option two. Well, option three if she counted eyeball scooping.

What she was doing was supposed to be impossible and it would be if she hadn't written crucial components of the system herself. But even for her, it was proving a challenge. She'd kicked everyone out of the conservatory while she did the heavy lifting. Only Oliver hadn't grumbled. She liked that in a man.

And bingo! She was in.

Eagerly, she opened the mystery project file. She'd worked with and on oodles of projects at Queen Consolidated and immediately saw the file was unusually sparse on details. She skipped to the end. The last time the devices were moved was 18 months ago. Off site, as she thought, but no address listed. And an independent contractor was brought in for the transfer. She opened up another window to search the contractor. It didn't take her long to decide they'd never existed. Disappointed, but not too surprised, she turned back to the files to see if she could mine it for other data.

An hour later, she leapt up to go searching for Oliver. She found him on her first try. He was running hard on the treadmill, sweat glistening over every inch of his skin. He looked intent so she hesitated for a moment over interrupting him. Watching and waiting for him to finish wouldn't have been a hardship, but he caught sight of her and pulled off his headphones and slowed down.

"You don't have to stop, but I have something. I think. Maybe. Or maybe I'm imagining connections."

"Why don't you start at the beginning?"

"I got into the project file. It doesn't have any real description of what the devices are and no record of where they went. The delivery service contracted for the job didn't even really exist, but I found out they were moved from the Applied Science Storage about 18 months ago."

"Does that help us?"

"I think so but that's skipping ahead. The Markov Device, that's what the file calls it which is also a dead end description wise since Markov was the lead scientist on the project—"

"Breathe Felicity."

She forced herself to slow down.

"It's a Unidac Industries project. The same Unidac Industries that CEO's were dying over, that Warren Patel likely ordered killed via the sniper at the Exchange Building."

"And you think this is the project worth killing over?"

"Hard to say, but what I do know is it's the one project that, when QC acquired Unidac, had their overtime hours just go insane. And the budget...I'm not sure there was cap on the budget."

"Did the financials break down what they built the devices out of? Could components give you a clue to what it was?

"I looked. Supplies are listed which I thought was going to be our ace, but this is a case of too much of a good thing. Seems they ordered ahead in bulk. Like they were making sure they'd immediately have anything any project might need."