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I purse my lips and stare at all the stock before me. The fashion brand Piovere exists almost entirely within the confines of these walls. Everything … But hidden far away at the back, within the chilled holding facilities for our perfumes, is therealproduct.
But the fact that the products representing the drugs disappeared and then reappeared doesn’t feel right.
“Let’s go,” I say. The guard turns heel and begins striding alongside me. “Get Sam to look into the software though. Check the login logs and stock reports. I don’t like any of this. If someone has hacked us, then this whole thing is a lot worse than I could have thought.”
“Yes, Mr. Colombino,” he says, turning gratefully and running off.
My blood bubbles at the thought of it all. I picture Sophie and can’t believe I’ve been so stupid. It can’t be her. Surely with everything, every time we’ve tried to talk … It’s like I’m some kid with a crush. Maybe things moved too fast? Or maybe I just don’t want to screw things up? This is why I don’t date. This is why I bring hussies home and have them dropped off. I don’t have to worry about anything more than a few mini bottles of champagne missing from the limo.
But that thought only makes me think of my father, and all the regrets that have been rolling around my head for the last few days. I push it aside and channel my anger into my vengeance.
My teeth are grinding as I trudge between the high shelves and stock. There’s a few forklifts working an aisle over on the night shift, shifting dresses and accessories that are then shipped to an actual sales facility. It’s quiet in the big facility other than that. The immense size of the place makes the problem of missing stock seem even larger. Hopeless even, if I let my fear catch in my mind. The guards are the only two who I can ask for any help for the time being. If it were day we’d have many other managers and workers here I could pester. I hope they’re waking the right ones up.
My phone pings and I take it out again. Another fucking security alert.
I walk on and come to an intersection, a forklift cruises by and the guy has headphones in blaring away some crap I can’t help but only hear the bass of.
A text comes as I cross the way.Still, she seemed happy until a half hour ago …
I stare at this one for a while though. A possibility runs through my mind that I’d never thought of before. But it’s a thought that I deem foolish. One that couldn’t be true …
No one would be able to bug us. Barely anyone knew of my mother’s house, and even then, Sophie has been home the whole time. Nor could they put cameras in. If someone had that kind of access they would just do something …
“Mister Colombino?” the guard calls, running up to me. It’s the same one as before.
“What?” I turn, looking up from my phone and continuing forward. I’m still thinking about the messages, but when I see that the guard looks more terrified than before about something, I stop.
“H—have you looked at the tablet?” he asks.
I don’t answer and unlock the thing instead. The app has closed, so I reopen it and the screen is blank from load up. I refresh the page and wait for it to load again. But it’s still blank.
I still, the hollowness forming in my chest and beginning to bubble in my heart.It’s just loading.But when it fails to load again, and I close the app and reload it, the truth finally smacks me in the face.
A truth I don’t want to face.So instead I bark at the guard, “What's with the tablet?” I demand. “Where’s the stock? The internet should be fine here and it should be reading perfectly.”
The guard swallows. “It is reading perfectly.” He braces for attack.
I almost break the tablet in half. “This is our stock?” I scream.
He nods. “It just all disappeared. All of it.”
I look around the warehouse. I stare at all the fashion accessories and dresses. The packing crates. I run as quickly as I can for the rear. For the cold fridges with thousands of bottles of perfume, fake panels and hidden doors. I burst into the cool room and practically wrench the hidden door off its rails as I open onto the cold room for our drugs. Except it’s an empty room before me.
We’ve been cleaned out …
I’m speechless. My whole world crumbles.
My phone pings.Do you like my surprise? I’ve been planning it for a while.
Then the same message appears on Sophie’s phone.
And Marco’s.
I look up my phone to the empty room and walk in. There’s nothing here. Every single pallet has been cleared out. This was a year of deliveries that we were going to move slowly. This was a year’s worth of work that would be distributed over the course of—
Another message to all three.Same with this surprise …
“There’s something you need to know about the stock levels,” the guard says. “Sam just scanned the network users for the last few weeks, and uh—” the man is very uncomfortable. “He looked at who’s been logging in and using our system, as you asked. Obviously there’s all the usual ones, and everyone that has access doesn’t really stand out. E-except there’s only one person who’s manually been manipulating the stock lately. And it’s quite a bit …”
