Page 29 of Broken Headboards

I hear the handle on my door turn repeatedly, but since I’ve locked it after coming in, whoever’s out there has no other option but wait for me. Blindly, I cross the office and finally manage to unlock the door.

“Samantha? What the hell is going on? Power surge?”

“I...I don’t think so,” she stammers, her glance flying from her bright cell phone screen to me. “The IT guys are in a panic right now. They called me the moment the computers went out.”

“The IT guys?” I ask with alarm. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I really don’t know how to say it, but...seems like all our data has been stolen,” she says to me.

“All of it?!” I ask her, already anticipating what her answer is going to be.

“All of it.” Sighing, she looks away from me, nervously shifting her weight from one foot to the other. “And that includes the plans for the next contest.”

“Do we have backups?” I ask.

Samantha just shakes her head.

“The IT guys say this was a professional hit job and our backup servers are fried too,” she laments. “They knew exactly what to take out and they did it with efficiency. We have nothing left. All our designs will have to start from scratch.”

Suddenly, I’m not enjoying this novel as much as I was a second ago.

Just lovely.

I know exactly who did this.

Austin Randall.

I swear to God I’m going to find him.

And then I’m going to kill him with my bare hands.