Elias sat back. The air in the breakroom felt colder. He looked up at the CCTV camera in the corner—the red light was blinking. It was always blinking. But now it felt like an eye.

A live view of Whitaker’s desktop appeared. Outlook was open. An unsent email sat in the draft folder, addressed to the firm’s entire client list. The subject line read: "We are dissolving effective immediately. Here is where your money went."

He unplugged the thumb drive. He pocketed it. Then he did the only thing a bored, underpaid night guard could do: he walked to the partner’s hallway, used his master key to enter Whitaker’s office, and copied the entire draft email onto a fresh drive of his own.

The next morning, he handed in his resignation. The thumb drive labeled MyLanViewer 4.14.1 Portable stayed in his pocket.

A window opened showing the directory tree of a server he’d never seen before. Folder names scrolled past: 2022_Tax_Returns , Client_NDAs , Audit_Responses . And then, one folder at the very bottom, labeled in lowercase: do_not_open .