Page 59 of The Honeymoon Hack

“Ken.” Her tone stayed pleasant, but she gestured toward the corner of The Bridge, away from the other analysts. “Can I talk to you for a moment?”

Ken’s jaw tightened slightly, but he nodded. “Sure.”

They moved away from my desk, and I couldn’t hear the first few words. Claire’s voice rose just enough to carry. “—not protocol. The new training method exists for a reason.”

“When I started, we learned by doing.” Ken was clearly on the defensive. “It’s more effective than watching outdated videos for hours.”

As they moved deeper into the corner, the noise-canceling features in the room prevented me from hearing more of their conversation.

I had maybe thirty seconds before one of them came back. Ken’s body language shifted—arms crossed, weight on his back foot. Defensive but not backing down. Maybe I’d have longer.

My hands moved to the keyboard. Minimized the search results Ken had pulled up.

Opened a new search.

Search: “Fenix”

No results found.

Of course not. That would have been too easy.

I cleared the search box. Tried the shell companies.

Search: “Artemis Ventures”

No results.

Search: “Mariner Trust”

No results.

Come on. Give me something.

Ken had unfolded his arms and was holding up his hands in a placating gesture. I didn’t have much time left.

Search: “Black Crown Holdings”

The system churned for half a second.

One result.

Please, please, please.

The entry wasn’t a complete client profile—it was a comment thread attached to a support ticket. Recent authentication problem. The analyst had noted in the comments: “Client initially provided company name as Black Crown Holdings. Authentication failed. Client corrected to Meridian Data Solutions. Authentication successful.”

Meridian Data Solutions.

My hands went still on the keyboard.

MeridianGalleryhad been one of the shell companies—was Meridian Data Solutions related to it? It had to be.

I clicked through to the ticket details. The system loaded Meridian’s client profile, and I skimmed it, committing as much as possible to memory. Their headquarters were in Sydney, Australia. One server, on a ten-year rental agreement, with a top-tier service program.

Contact Name: S. Hayes.

Stephen Hayes! One of the names on Mum’s list!

I’d found them.