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CHAPTER1
Her heart racedas she stared at the screen. She blinked hard, unable to believe her eyes. There was no way. Checking again, she confirmed her first thought; the numbers were off. Way off. They weren’t even in the same ballpark as they were supposed to be. A thin sheen of sweat broke out on her back as she continued to read the horror filling the screen in front of her. The implications of the situation were inconceivable.
Her phone dinged to signal an incoming text. The slight noise made her jump. “Shit,” she mumbled as she glanced at her screen. Just her mother forgetting the time difference again. Reaching for her purse, she pulled out the backup flash drive she kept there for emergencies. This qualified. This was the mother of all emergencies.
She slotted the drive into the machine and clicked the button on the screen to begin the download. The bar on the screen seemed to be moving at a glacial pace. She noted the time in the corner of her screen. Two a.m. She’d stayed late to work on another project entirely and had gotten carried away until she’d stumbled on this file purely by accident. If she hadn’t deleted the wrong file and then cleared her trash without realizing it, she never would’ve been in the backup file in the first place. And she never would have known the truth.
But was it the truth? Could it be possible? If this data was the real data, then lives would be lost. Was there a way this could be fake? She tried to make that scenario fit, but no matter how she flipped the puzzle pieces in her head, there was no way to make these numbers add up. No. This was the real data. Her stomach rolled.
A sudden thump against the wall of her office made her jump. Was someone here? The cleaners had gone through hours ago. She stared at the door to her office. There were windows on either side of it, but the blinds were half closed so she couldn’t see anything clearly. There was no movement. No sounds. She let out the breath she’d been holding and tried to calm her racing heart. Stupid. The bar said eighty-three percent. This backup was taking forever.
She should call Damon and tell him what she found. As the CEO of NoVoGlobal, he needed to know this ASAP. She should send him the file. They needed to move on this immediately. Her hand trembled as she reached for the phone. Who had created the file, or rather who’d deleted the real file and given her the doctored numbers? Wasn’t that information on here somewhere? She stared at the screen. Someone had to know about this. Someone had the data and purposefully altered it. Then deleted the file. They purposely covered this up. That thought sent a chill down her spine.
The thump happened again and she shot to her feet. She’d talk to Damon from home. The file finished downloading and she ejected the USB, tucking it into the pocket of her blazer. Clicking out of the file, she hesitated. Did she dare move it somewhere else? A few keystrokes later, she had a copy of the file and she moved it to a new location and renamed it. No one would think to look for it there.
She was being silly. Once she brought this to Damon’s attention, the CEO would act on it. This was all some crazy misunderstanding. Some tech in the lab fudged the data, not recognizing the consequences. That’s what must have happened. Try as she might to convince herself of the truth of that, a hollow feeling grew in her chest. She was grasping at straws to avoid seeing the truth.
Clicking out of where she was, she closed everything on her screen and shut down her laptop. She usually brought it home with her but as she was coming back to the office in seven hours even though it was Saturday, it didn’t seem necessary. But still. Maybe she should do what she always did just in case someone was watching. Was someone watching or listening to her? Her heart rate shot up again and her palms were slick with sweat.
She glanced out the large windows to her left. The blinds partially blocked the view so no one could see in. Taking in the rest of her office, she tried to determine if anything was out of place or if anything new was there. Isn’t that what they did in the movies? She gave herself a mental shake. As if she could see any bugs or cameras planted there. Shit, she’d gone from normal to paranoid at lightning speed.
She packed up her laptop and put it into her old messenger bag and then headed across her office. Flipping off the light, she then pulled open the door and screamed.
“Son of a bitch, Connie,” she snarled. “You scared the shit out of me. What are you doing here at this hour?” she demanded as she sagged against the door frame.
Conrad Ingram grinned. “I’m so sorry, Allegra. I got lost in work and didn’t realize the time. My laptop was acting up and I had to troubleshoot. You know what the guys down in IT are like. They treat you like you’re an idiot when you call them.”
“Most peopleareidiots when it comes to computers,” she said mildly, willing her heart to return to a normal rhythm.
Connie laughed. “True. Anyway, I was just on my way out and saw the light on in your office. What are you doing here?”
Connie’s dark hair stood up in tufts. His brown eyes crinkled at the corners, looking tired but filled with mirth. Connie, as everyone called him, was the nice guy at the office. Middle-aged, with a growing belly and thinning hair, he was everyone’s dad. He was also the head of the legal department and going through the mother of all divorces which, she suspected, was why he was at the office so late. He, like her, had no one to go home to so why bother going?
“Same thing. Fell down a rabbit hole looking at the study for Flomox.” She moved out of her office and closed the door and the two started down the hallway toward the elevators.
“How’s it looking?” Connie hit the button.
“Good so far. Lots of positive data but there are a few points of concern. I’m coming in tomorrow or rather later today to go over it again. I think we’ll have to see how the next batch looks before we move on it.”
He sighed. “Graham is not going to like that. He wants to move on this. I know he’s pushing to buy Scolari Pharmaceuticals already.”
They boarded the elevator and rode it to the ground floor. “I know but he’s just going to have to wait a bit longer. We could be spending a whole lot of money to buy a big dud. It would not be the first time.”
“True, but with Cytoxine getting FDA approval this week, he’s riding high at the moment. He keeps pointing out to everyone how he picked the big winner and that the money they’d paid for it is a drop in the bucket compared to what NoVoGlobal is going to make on it.”
Just the mention of the drug had her insides turning to liquid. “I know. Dealing with Graham has been getting harder and harder of late. And three hundred million doesn’t seem like a drop in the bucket to me, nor is the two billion he spent on the dud drug before that deal.”
They nodded to the security guard as they went by and made their way to the street. “If he gets his way and the drug flops, he’ll try to put the blame on you, you know,” Connie pointed out.
She nodded. “I know. I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t. All I can do is raise my concerns at the meeting next week and let Damon decide.” Her driver had gotten out of the car and come around, waiting to open the rear door of the BMW.
Connie touched her shoulder. “I do not envy you your position.”
“Thanks. Some days I don’t like it either.” She gave him a quick smile. “Have a good weekend.”
“You, too.” He turned and headed down the sidewalk.
Allegra went to the car and Jurgen opened the door. Sliding in, she put on her seatbelt and then put her head back on the seat. Fatigue hit her. The adrenaline that had slammed her veins when she was in her office had left her system just as quickly, leaving her feeling depleted, shaky, and slightly ridiculous. The conversation with Connie had been mundane and normal. The interaction had grounded her. That’s what Connie did for most in the company. Whenever someone was wound up, they went to see Connie or Connie sought them out and then worked his magic. He’d managed to head off many confrontations and help find equitable solutions among the C level people.
