Then Nathan reached up and tore the camera from the wall.
The feed went black.
It did not matter.
The recording had already been duplicated to three external servers.
Claire was brought into my office with a bruise forming along her cheek.
She refused medical attention until she saw the sealed coffee.
“He made me send the message,” she said.
“Dane took my phone in the lobby.
I tried to warn the reception desk, but Howard had replaced the morning staff.”
“Why didn’t Dane take you somewhere else?”
“He needed me nearby in case you called.
He wanted me to sound normal.”
She looked at Eli.
“He saved you.”
Eli lowered his eyes.
“I just saw the bottle,” he said.
“Most adults saw what they were told to see,” Claire replied.
“You saw what happened.”
A hazardous-materials technician removed the coffee from the safe.
Preliminary testing detected a powerful sedative combined with a second compound known to cause temporary confusion and slurred speech.
The amount was unlikely to be fatal to a healthy adult, but the interaction could have produced cardiac complications.
Nathan had planned to make me appear incompetent.
He had accepted the possibility that I might die.
At nine o’clock, the board convened without me.
Nathan joined remotely from my house, unaware that federal officers had already surrounded the property.
He told the directors I had suffered an acute medical episode and was unable to participate.
Several board members performed concern badly.
One asked whether the succession proxy had been located.
Another suggested postponing medical verification until after the Norland vote.
That was the moment I entered the meeting from my office.
My face appeared on the boardroom screens.
No one spoke.
Nathan stared into his camera.
“Daniel, you should be resting.”
“I feel well enough to watch you steal my company.”
A director named Malcolm Price stood abruptly.
“This conversation is inappropriate.
We have been informed that your judgment may be impaired.”
“By whom?”
He looked toward Nathan’s image.
I placed the laboratory’s preliminary toxicology report on the table in front of me.
“A substance was added to my coffee this morning.
Federal officers recovered the man who placed it there.
He has identified Howard Brennan as his coordinator.”
Nathan’s expression remained composed, but his right hand disappeared beneath the desk.
He was reaching for another phone.
“That has nothing to do with this board,” he said.
“It has everything to do with this board.
The substance was intended to create the appearance of incapacity before your vote.”
I shared the hidden camera recording.
The directors watched Dane tamper with the coffee cart.
They watched Howard enter my office and demand the cup.
They heard him tell Eli that he should have stayed downstairs.
Then they watched the footage from my home, where Nathan’s attorneys discussed activating the proxy after the dose took effect.
Malcolm Price sat down slowly.
