The metadata came back four days later, delivered not to Elena but to Alexander directly, per the terms of his personal intervention — a decision that had already generated exactly the kind of whispered speculation around the building he'd predicted it would.
He called her into his office the moment he finished reading it, and one look at his face told her the news wasn't good.
"It's worse than we hoped," he said, sliding the report across the desk. "The IP address matches your building access badge's location at the time. Whoever did this either physically used a device on this floor while wearing something that spoofed your badge signal, or they've compromised something considerably closer to you than a simple stolen password."
Elena scanned the report, her stomach twisting tighter wi
