Her sister turned and faced her, then took her hands. “I’m sorry I made it sound like I doubted you. Of course, what happened before isn’t who you really are. I’m glad you’re here to help.” Nora brushed her dark bangs from her face and revealed the shadows under her eyes that she’d tried to hide with makeup. “In the meantime, please come with me this afternoon. It’ll give us both a fresh perspective. Dad was big on this. Rowan too. I can’t let them down. The employees will lose morale if I cancel.”

Was Nora scared to go? Mackenzie could let the tests and algorithms run while she was gone. And maybe she would build more trust, more of a connection so Nora would share what she hadn’t shared yet.

“Okay. I’ll be there. About Rowan—I don’t suppose there’s any news yet?”

“The state pathologist will be doing the autopsy tomorrow. I’ve been told it could be sixty days before we get all the results back. If a drug caused a heart attack, the tox reports are going to tell us.”

Mackenzie feared that his pacemaker had been hacked, but if so, Nebulous 2.0 would have made his tampering difficult to discover.

How can I live with myself if he was murdered?

A knock came at the door, and Carson stuck his head in. “You ready for lunch? You should join us too, Mackenzie, if you have time.”

“Actually, this needs to be a working lunch, and we have some things to discuss. I hope you understand, Mackenzie.” Nora had turned all professional again.

“Sure.”

Mackenzie followed her sister out of her office to join Carson. While they got on the elevator, Mackenzie used the stairwell and made it to her office without running into anyone.

Glancing out her office window, she watched Nora get in the car with Carson, relieved that her sister decided she trusted her enough to leave her at the company, after all. Either that or with Carson’s appearance, she’d forgotten her dictum.

Just where did they go for lunch around here besides the small onsite cafeteria? Mackenzie should grab lunch too before this afternoon’s team-building adventure. Instead, she checked analytics and, as expected, spotted nothing out of the ordinary. Her chest constricted with frustration. This was a colossal waste of time. The cryptic message delivered via Freda Stone was ridiculous. And now, she was seeing secret coded messages everywhere.

She thought back to her sister’s words. “Learn what you can with what I’ve given you.”

What have you given me? Nothing except an air-gapped network that’s completely separate from whatever you’re doing on that secret lower level.