God," Patrick whispered, leaning back in his leather chair. "They didn't just commit corporate theft, Maya. Under the Defend Trade Secrets Act and federal wire fraud statutes, conspiring to transmit proprietary medical data across state and international lines is a major federal felony carrying up to ten years in prison per count."
"What's the play, Patrick?" I asked, my voice calm, level, and deadly.
"The play," Patrick smiled, a grim, predatory grin, "is that we don't say a single word until Friday morning."
Friday morning was the final, mandatory in-person board meeting and investor demonstration for Helios Biometric Systems at the Boston Harbor Hotel. All eight board members, the lead acquisition directors from the European conglomerate, and our outside legal counsel were scheduled to convene in the grand conference room at 10:00 AM.
Rachel was scheduled to present the financial valuation and intellectual property transfer schedule. Gavin had asked to attend as my 'guest and proud spouse', claiming he wanted to celebrate the culmination of my life's work.
For the next forty-eight hours, I lived in the house with Gavin as if nothing had changed.
I made him his morning green smoothie. I asked him how the city council bid was coming along. When he kissed me goodnight and whispered that he was so proud of
everything I had accomplished, I smiled into the dark and whispered back, "You have no idea what's coming, Gavin."
Friday morning arrived under gray, drizzling skies.
The harbor conference room was stunning: panoramic floor-to-ceiling glass windows overlooking Boston Harbor, twenty executive leather chairs, and two massive 85-inch digital presentation displays mounted on the wood-paneled wall.
Rachel arrived at 9:30 AM looking radiant in an ivory tailored pantsuit, holding her silver encrypted hard drive, greeting the European acquisition executives with effortless European charm. Gavin arrived at 9:45 AM in a custom charcoal three-piece suit, kissing Rachel's cheek with professional distance before coming over to wrap his arm around my waist.
"Big day, sweetheart," Gavin whispered into my ear, squeezing my hand. "The biggest day of our lives."
"It certainly is, Gavin," I said.
At 10:05 AM, the lead European partner, an imposing German director named Henrik, tapped the table. "Ladies and gentlemen, let us begin. Rachel, please present the final IP transfer schedule and verified repository architecture so our legal team can sign the closing certificates."
Rachel stood up, smoothed her lapels, and walked confidently to the lectern. She plugged her silver hard drive into the presentation hub. "Thank you, Henrik. As you all know, Helios's core value rests on our proprietary neural diagnostic pipeline. Today, I
am proud to demonstrate our finalized—"
"Before Rachel demonstrates anything," I interrupted, standing up from my chair at the center of the table.
The room went quiet. Rachel frowned, casting a warning glare in my direction. "Maya, we agreed I would run the presentation flow so we stay on schedule."
Gavin gently placed his hand on my shoulder. "Maya, honey, let Rachel handle the slides. You can speak during the technical Q&A."
I looked down at Gavin's hand on my shoulder, pulled my shoulder away, and took a remote control out of my jacket pocket.
"Rachel isn't going to show you the slides from that drive," I said, my voice carrying clearly through the room. "Because the files on that drive were stolen from Helios's private secure servers at two o'clock on Tuesday afternoon in the garage of my home."
The temperature in the room dropped ten degrees in half a second.
Henrik frowned, sitting up straight. "Excuse me, Dr. Cross? What did you just say?"
Rachel's confident smile froze into a rigid mask of terror. "Maya, what are you talking about? Are you having some kind of panic attack?"
I pressed the button on the presentation remote.
Both 85-inch screens illuminated simultaneously.
Instead of corporate slide decks, the screens displayed the crystal-clear, high-definition video feed