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The ambassador's eyes widened. "Sabotage? But who would-"

A sudden commotion outside the room cut him off. Raised voices, the sound of running feet. I moved to the door, my hand instinctively reaching for the small stunner hidden in my jacket.

"Wait," Goernx said sharply. He tilted his head, his enhanced hearing picking up something I couldn't. "Two people, approaching fast. One of them is saying something about a breach in the quantum firewall?"

My heart leapt into my throat. If someone had breached our most secure systems...

The door burst open, revealing a breathless technician and one of my junior aides. "Delegate Belk!" the aide gasped. "There's been a security breach. Someone accessed the treaty drafts and-"

She broke off, her eyes widening as she registered Zix's presence. "I... I'm sorry, I didn't realize..."

"It's alright," I said quickly, my mind racing. "Ambassador Zix is fully briefed on the situation. What happened?"

The technician stepped forward, his face pale. "We detected an unauthorized access to the secure servers containing the treaty drafts. Someone downloaded the entire negotiation history, including all private communications between delegates."

Every concession, every private doubt, every back channel deal, all of it was now in the hands of someone who clearly didn't want these negotiations to succeed.

Zix let out a low hiss, his scales rippling with agitation. "By the Seven Moons," he muttered. "If that information gets out..."

"It won't," I said firmly, even as my own doubts gnawed at me. "We'll contain this."

Goernx was already moving, his fingers flying over the holographic interface. "I'm initiating emergency protocols. We need to lock down all communication channels and-"

He stopped abruptly, his cybernetic eye whirring rapidly. "Clover," he said, his voice unnaturally calm. "You need to see this."

I moved to his side, looking at the display. What I saw made my blood run cold. The log of the unauthorized access showed not just what disappeared, but from where.

The access point was listed as:DIPLOMATIC SUITE 17-A.

My suite.

"That's impossible," I stammered. "I was here, I didn't-"

But even as I spoke, a horrible realization was dawning. The missing hours from two nights ago, the gaps in my memory that I'd attributed to stress and lack of sleep...

Goernx's hand on my arm steadied me. "We don't know anything for certain yet," he said quietly. But I could see the doubt in his human eye.

Zix looked between us, his confusion giving way to suspicion. "What's going on? Delegate Belk, what aren't you telling us?"

I opened my mouth to respond, but no words came out. How could I explain something I didn't understand myself?

The room felt like it was closing in around me. The aide and technician were staring at me with growing unease. Zix's earlier doubts seemed to resurface. And Goernx...

Goernx was watching me with an expression I couldn't quite read.

"I think," he said slowly, "we need to have a very careful conversation about what happens next."

As if on cue, my comm unit chimed with an incoming message. With shaking hands, I activated it, and a holographic projection appeared in the center of the room.

It was Syntax-7, the formidable cyborg diplomat who had joined our negotiations. His chrome-plated face was impassive as always, but there was an edge to his synthesized voice that sent chills down my spine.

"Delegates," he intoned. "In light of recent developments, I am calling an emergency session of the full negotiating body. Attendance is mandatory. We convene in one hour."

The projection flickered out, leaving us in stunned silence.

One hour. One hour to figure out what the hell was going on, to clear my name, to save the negotiations that had become my life's work.

One hour to prevent history from repeating itself in the worst possible way.