Chapter 12: Phase Two
Rain began falling just before dawn.
Thin drops streaked across the windows of the neuroscience building, blurring the campus into gray shapes and scattered lights.
Inside the laboratory, no one had gone home.
Coffee cups had replaced champagne.
Evidence bags had replaced graduation flowers.
Sarah sat quietly at her workstation, staring at the recovered flash drive.
The notebook was gone.
Its digital backup wasn't.
She should have felt relieved.
Instead, one question kept repeating in her mind.
Why today?
Agent Michael Reeves stood before a whiteboard covered with photographs.
Sarah.
The stolen notebook.
The anonymous photograph.
The tracking beacon.
The disguised intruder.
He drew a line through the center.
"There are two separate patterns."
Lisa Chen nodded.
"The anonymous donor."
"And the anonymous observer."
"They've never overlapped."
Mrs. Carter folded her arms.
"The donor protected Sarah."
"The observer studied her."
Dr. Hendricks added quietly,
"And only one of them stole something."
Reeves circled the notebook.
"Which suggests the observer wasn't interested in Sarah as a person."
"They were interested in her work."
Sarah suddenly looked up.
"My work..."
Everyone turned toward her.
"I don't think they wanted the Alzheimer's research."
Reeves frowned.
"What makes you say that?"
She stood and walked toward the whiteboard.
"My published paper explains everything important."
"If someone wanted to copy it..."
"They're already too late."
Lisa nodded slowly.
"The journal released it online."
"Exactly."
Sarah looked thoughtful.
"The notebook mostly contained ideas that failed."
Dr. Hendricks smiled.
"Except one."
Sarah froze.
One page came back to her memory.
Months earlier.
Late one night.
She had sketched a completely different mathematical model.
She'd never tested it.
Never showed anyone except...
Her expression changed.
Dr. Hendricks noticed.
"What?"
Sarah whispered,
"I showed Professor Grant."
The room became still.
Professor Nathan Grant.
Head of Translational Neuroscience.
One of the university's most respected researchers.
"He only looked at it for a few minutes," Sarah said.
"It wasn't finished."
"What did he say?" Reeves asked.
Sarah remembered the conversation almost word for word.
"Interesting idea."
"It'll never work."
"Focus on your current project."
She had taken the notebook home that night.
And never mentioned the idea again.
At least...
She thought she hadn't.
Lisa was already searching university records.
"Nathan Grant."
She frowned.
"He's in Boston."
"Left campus yesterday afternoon."
"For a conference?"
"No."
She kept reading.
"He resigned."
Everyone looked at her.
"Yesterday?"
Lisa nodded.
"Effective immediately."
Dr. Hendricks stared at the screen.
"He never told the department."
Across the city, Professor Nathan Grant sat alone in an airport lounge.
A leather briefcase rested beside his chair.
Inside was a blue laboratory notebook.
He looked at his watch.
His flight had been delayed.
Again.
He seemed more irritated than nervous.
His phone vibrated.
One new message.
Did you get it?
He typed only one word.
Yes.
Another message arrived almost instantly.
Destroy the original after copying.
Grant didn't reply.
Instead...
He opened the notebook.
He flipped through pages filled with equations, diagrams, and handwritten notes.
Near the middle, he stopped.
A folded piece of yellowed paper slipped onto his lap.
He picked it up.
A handwritten letter.
Not scientific.
Personal.
He unfolded it.
The first line read:
"To my little Sarah..."
Grant frowned.
"This wasn't supposed to be here."
He reached for the trash bin beside his chair.
Then stopped.
Something had been written on the back.
Not by Sarah.
Not by her grandmother.
A different hand.
A series of numbers.
Coordinates.
Grant stared.
"What..."
His phone rang before he could finish reading.
The distorted voice returned.
"Do you have the notebook?"
"Yes."
"Burn it."
Grant looked again at the folded letter.
"There may be something else."
The voice became sharp.
"I said burn it."
The line disconnected.
Grant slowly folded the letter and slipped it into his jacket pocket instead of throwing it away.
Back at the university, Reeves received an urgent call.
"Reeves."
The voice belonged to airport security.
"Agent Reeves?"
"Yes."
"We received a federal request regarding Professor Nathan Grant."
Reeves straightened.
"Where is he?"
"Gate 14."
"For now."
Reeves looked at Lisa.
"Get every available unit to the airport."
Sarah frowned.
"Professor Grant stole my notebook?"
Reeves answered carefully.
"We don't know that."
"But we know he has it."
Dr. Hendricks looked devastated.
"I hired Nathan."
"I've known him for fifteen years."
Mrs. Carter quietly said,
"Sometimes betrayal comes wearing familiar faces."
At the airport, boarding began.
Grant stood.
Briefcase in hand.
He blended naturally into the line of passengers.
A security officer suddenly approached.
"Professor Grant?"
Grant smiled politely.
"Yes?"
"Would you mind stepping aside for a moment?"
Grant's smile never changed.
"Of course."
He followed the officer away from the gate.
Halfway down the corridor...
The fire alarm exploded throughout the terminal.
Red lights flashed.
Passengers screamed.
Smoke began pouring from a maintenance hallway.
"Evacuate!"
People surged in every direction.
The security officer turned instinctively toward the crowd.
For three seconds...
He lost sight of Grant.
Three seconds were enough.
When order was finally restored...
Professor Nathan Grant had disappeared.
So had Sarah's notebook.
But on the empty chair where he had been sitting...
Airport police found only one thing.
The folded letter from Sarah's grandmother.
Still unopened.
And on the back, beneath the mysterious coordinates, someone had written a fresh message in blue ink.
"You're asking the wrong question."
May you like
"Find out who wrote the numbers."
End of Chapter 12
