I started with Rune's floor. Seventeenth. The corridor outside 1704 showed clear coverage, wide angle, good lighting, no blind spots.
Something was off. I pulled up the previous night's footage. Same corridor. Same camera. The angle was different.
It wasn't a dramatic change. Maybe three degrees. It was enough to tighten coverage on Rune's door specifically. The frame had shifted from general hallway monitoring to focused observation.
I checked the adjustment timestamp: 4:15 PM. Twenty minutes after we'd returned from the walk.
Next, I pulled up the fourteenth floor. My hallway. Same thing. Camera adjusted at 4:20 PM. Tighter coverage on my door.
I sat back. Camera adjustments weren't unusual. Security teams made them constantly, correcting drift to optimize coverage.
Both cameras adjusting five minutes apart? Both of them tightening their focus on our specific rooms?
I pulled up the lobby feed. Three cameras covered the main entrance, elevator bank, and front desk.
No adjustments.
I looked at the service entrance, loading dock, and the parking garage.
All unchanged.
I thought about Rune three floors up and wondered whether he was sleeping. Whether someone was watching his door right now through the camera I was observing.
I opened a new window and checked the personnel logs. I spotted a maintenance request filed at 4:02 PM. Camera calibration. Authorized by: Hotel Security Manager. Requested by: Tour Management.
No specific names.
I pulled up the request details. They appeared to be in the proper format. All the right fields filled in. Professional language about maintaining optimal coverage for high-profile guests. Nothing technically wrong.
I checked further back through the past week of security camera logs.
San Francisco: No adjustments until the day I arrived. Then three cameras repositioned: the lobby, the sixteenth-floor corridor, and the service entrance.
Vancouver: Adjustments made during the night of the hotel room breach. Four cameras. Timing scattered across the night shift.
Portland: Tonight. Two cameras. Both focused on us.
I closed the laptop and leaned back. My chest felt tight. I rubbed at it absently.
Nothing random. All systematic.
This wasn't reactive security. It was stage-setting.
Soo-jin wasn't waiting for an opportunity. He was creating the conditions for one.
The cameras would show whatever he needed them to show. The documentation would support whatever story he chose to tell.
When something happened, when the crisis Eamon predicted materialized and Rune got hurt, every piece of evidence would point in the direction Soo-jin chose.
Likely toward me.
I thought about calling Kang. Showing him the logs. Making the pattern explicit.
On second thought, what could I prove? Cameras were adjusted? Tour management requested enhanced monitoring?
All of it was plausible. Professional. Exactly what responsible security looked like from the outside.
I couldn't prove intent. All I had was a pattern. Patterns were easy to dismiss until something catastrophic happened.
