Page 11

Rhys

I t’s Friday morning, and I check my phone again, the screen stubbornly blank. No message from Jade. I shouldn’t care this much. It’s not like I’ve just been waiting since yesterday, but the silence digs at me in a way I can’t quite explain. Does she not want to continue getting together?

Maybe it’s because I see some of myself in her. The way she keeps everyone at arm’s length, always protective. I understand why, considering the way we met, but it’s a mirror I didn’t ask for, showing me just how much I’ve built my own world the same way, though for different reasons.

I set the phone down, exhaling slowly. I’ve spent years convincing myself that needing people is weakness, that being self-reliant is the only way to survive. But now I’m starting to wonder what it would feel like to stop trying so damn hard to do everything alone. I glance at the clock. Crystal, Theo, Austin, and I have a meeting with Jim Adelson and Mason Sullivan in less than ten minutes. I need to get myself together. I can’t afford any distractions now.

“Rhys?” Mackenzie questions me as I step out of my office.

“Going to grab a coffee,” I tell her without stopping. “Need to stretch my legs.”

“Should I—” she starts, a note of confusion coloring her words.

“Thanks, but I’ll get it.” I call over my shoulder, hoping she understands.

She nods, still looking perplexed, but she knows better than to press. She always does.

I head toward the break room, my mind feeling more clear already. Perhaps it’s the simple act of walking away from things left unsaid and unexplained. Or changing the scenery, getting the blood moving a bit. Whatever it is, I welcome the distraction.

The elevator dings just as I come back around the corner, coffee in hand. The doors slide open, revealing Jim and Mason.

“Gentlemen.” I greet them with a nod, pausing as they exit into the hallway. “Can I get you anything to drink?”

“Already on it,” Mackenzie chimes in from her desk, flashing me a smile. “Coffee’s on its way up.”

“Perfect, thanks,” Jim responds, adjusting his bag on his shoulder. Mason offers a grateful nod as they move past me.

“Let’s go to the conference room,” I suggest. We’re halfway there when Theo and Austin emerge from their offices, their timing impeccable. They fall in step with us, and we exchange quick updates on our respective mornings.

“Any word from Crystal?” I ask, glancing at my watch, aware that every minute counts in this game of tight schedules.

“Running late, as usual,” Jim grumbles, checking his own watch with an exaggerated sigh. “Next time, I’m telling her the meeting starts half an hour earlier. Maybe then she’ll be on time.”

I chuckle. Crystal’s concept of time is more fluid than most. “Good luck with that,” I reply.

We settle around the table, arranging papers and laptops, the conversation ebbing as we sink into pre-meeting focus. Despite Jim’s irritation, I find a sense of camaraderie in these moments of anticipation, each of us playing our part in this intricate dance of innovation and enterprise as we prepare.

The door swings open, and there she is—Crystal, strands of blonde hair escaping the loose bun she always wears when she means business. Her heels click authoritatively on the polished floor as she strides in.

“Save the speech, Jim,” she says, breathless yet somehow poised. “I’m working on punctuality.”

Jim doesn’t hide his amusement, but he’s quick to dive into business, flipping open a manila folder as Crystal takes her seat at the table.

“All right, let’s get down to it,” Jim says. He slides a list across the table, and we all lean forward to examine it. “These are the names of everyone who had access to the EnergiFusion plans back in college. Anyone missing?”

I scan the list, recognizing names that take me back to late nights hunched over circuit diagrams, chemical formulas, and endless lines of code. The memories resurface in sharp detail—darkness outside the lab, the hum of machinery, the thrill of turning ideas into reality. Back then, it felt like we could change the world. Now, those same memories are tainted, shadowed by betrayal. And looking at these names, I feel an undercurrent of distrust, and I can’t shake it.

“Looks complete,” Theo murmurs next to me.

“Near as I can remember,” Austin agrees, though how can we be sure?

“Ten years…” I muse aloud. It’s been a decade since we were idealistic students dreaming up a revolution in renewable energy. “I’m lucky I remember who these people are.”

“Ten years since the senior project,” Crystal echoes. “And to think it ended up on the dark web, of all places.”

“Exactly,” Jim confirms with a sigh. “We knew about the leak early on, but it wasn’t until the counterfeit batteries surfaced that we realized the extent of the damage.”

“Someone used our own work to undermine us,” Crystal adds, her hands clenched into fists. “To create problems for EnergiFusion… It’s personal, and it’s hitting us where it hurts.”

There’s a palpable frustration in the room. Somewhere out there is a traitor, a ghost from our days in the labs and lecture halls, now casting a long shadow over everything we’ve built.

“We’ve spoken to everyone listed,” Jim says, tapping a finger against the sheet of paper. “And we think we’ve figured out who uploaded the plans to the dark web.” He looks up to meet my eyes. “It was Dr. Michael Allen.”

The words hit me like a punch to the gut. “Dr. Allen?” I repeat. “Are you sure?”

Jim nods grimly. “We’re pretty certain. Everyone who ever had access to the plans got them from him. And he’s done quite a lot of posting on forums about corporate greed, claiming he was never compensated for the work he did mentoring you and Justin.”

I sink back in my chair, the air thick and stifling. Dr. Allen. The man who guided us through the earliest stages of our project, who pushed us to think bigger, to innovate. The man who believed in us when no one else did.

My mind pulls me back, unbidden, to the cramped university lab where it all started.

“You’re thinking too small,” Dr. Allen had told us as we hunched over our prototype. “This isn’t just about batteries. It’s about energy independence, about changing the way the world thinks about transportation.”

Justin had looked up, skeptical. “You really think it’s possible? At this scale?”

And Dr. Allen smirked. “If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be wasting my time here.” He looked around the cluttered workspace. “You guys have something here—something big. But it’ll only work if you stop worrying about what’s easy and start focusing on what’s revolutionary.”

I remember the way his words lit a fire under us. We’d worked late into the night, driven by his unwavering belief. Back then, he saw the potential in what we were trying to build. He encouraged us because he was our professor—not a partner.

How could that same man turn against us? The fire he helped ignite is the same one he’s trying to put out.

“Why?” I mutter. “Why would he do that?”

“He feels cheated,” Crystal says. “He thinks he’s entitled to more than he got.”

“We gave him credit and thanks,” Theo interjects. “He didn’t do anything more than his job.”

“Apparently, in his mind that wasn’t enough,” Jim replies.

My jaw tightens. “This is about money. He wants to punish us, to ruin everything we’ve built.”

Theo leans back in his chair, his brow furrowed. “How did we miss this? The old plans shouldn’t have been accessible in the first place.”

Crystal’s jaw tightens, and for a moment, she looks like she’s about to snap back. But then she exhales, her gaze dropping to the table. “It’s my fault,” she says quietly, seeming to surprise everyone. “When we couldn’t get the batteries to hold their charge, yet we were still trying to move forward, I tried to manage too much at once. I thought I could keep everything moving without letting anyone see how badly we were floundering. I spread myself too thin. And this is the result.”

She looks up, meeting my eyes. “I should’ve caught it sooner. I should’ve been more careful. But the truth is, I was focused on everything that goes into being a startup. I wasn’t thinking clearly about this, and now, we’re all paying for it.”

The room falls silent. It’s rare to see Crystal like this—unpolished, vulnerable, admitting she’s not invincible. I don’t think it was ever her responsibility to manage the security of our plans, but I don’t want to get into an argument with her. I’ll just take her apology as a sign of solidarity. I think that’s how she means it…

“What matters now is that we know who was behind the counterfeit batteries—at least indirectly,” I say finally. “This is an important piece of the puzzle.”

Jim nods, the lines around his eyes deepening. “It makes sense now. The motivation is clear.”

My fingers curl into fists. “He worked all of us for a percentage of the business after the auto show,” I say.

Theo taps the table with his finger. “I remember Justin asking us our feelings about it—”

“Yes!” Austin announces and looks at Mason. “We emailed you asking how often people thank their professors with stock options.”

Mason’s eyes widen, and he nods. “Right. I had a conversation about it with Justin. The guy wasn’t letting up.”

“That man is a menace,” Crystal says. “Could he be behind Justin’s disappearance?”

“It’s worth checking in to,” Jim admits, flipping a page in his folder. “We’ll continue to dig deeper.”

The room falls silent for a moment.

“Good,” I say finally. “Let’s see what you uncover.” Yet in the same moment, I wonder if this sets something in motion we can’t take back. What if there are others involved we thought we knew?