Together we all raced out of the car. Zola led the way, heading towards the lift with Katy and me right behind her. We squeezed inside, in a mad panic, budging past one another. Ethan followed behind, pressed the button and we felt the lift begin to rise.
‘That felt very straightforward,’ Katy breathed. All our adrenaline levels had been spiking since last night. A few moments later, the lift stopped and the doors opened.
Ethan popped his head out and stared from left to right, ‘OK, move!’ he ordered. The three of us walked so quickly that we were almost jogging around the corner towards the IT department.
When we arrived, we started clapping with relief.
Ethan headed straight to the monitor and began typing. Zola stood behind him in complete awe.
‘This is the program here. If you read out the sixteen-digit code, then it will search the database. It takes around ten to fifteen minutes.’
Her voice steady, Zola read the code; it was a combination of numbers and letters. Ethan focused on typing each character as she spoke. Meanwhile, Katy and I stood a few steps back, hands at our sides, careful not to touch anything.
‘Ethan, are you down here?’ a voice called out. I recognised it instantly: Britney.
Instant fear and panic flooded through me, and I raised my hands in the air to my friends, not wanting to move or speak. I pointed towards the security cameras he’d set up outside and the female figure poking her face up at the door we were behind.
‘I’m here,’ Ethan called out, walking towards the door. ‘Don’t come in,’ he said abruptly. ‘I don’t like anyone in my work .?.?.’
‘Blah blah blah, I know. The board meeting has been moved up, it’s starting now,’ Britney said.
I made eye contact with Zola, who looked like someone had stopped the music in a game of musical statues, one hand reaching out to the keyboard, the other in her pocket.
‘No, it’s at ten,’ Ethan replied.
Britney let out a nasty laugh. ‘No, it was at ten, but we wanted to get it over with. No point in delaying the inevitable. Come, or don’t come, your choice. I’m not sure your vote will matter anyway.’
She sounded so smug, so dismissive towards Ethan that I wanted to open that door and kick her straight in the flaps.
‘Ten would suit me better. I was told ten, and I don’t like .?.?.’
‘You don’t like change, don’t we just know it! As I said, you don’t have to come. I’m heading there now.’ Britney’s footsteps echoed down the corridor until they faded completely.
‘What now?’ I panicked. ‘We don’t have time!’ My voice was low, my eyes were pinned to the cameras, worried she could return at any time. ‘They must have changed the time deliberately, hoping people couldn’t make it.’
Ethan turned to Zola. ‘You know what to do. I will stall the board as much as possible, and if you get an answer, then come straight into the meeting.’ He grinned at her, clearly believing she was more than capable of this, then nodded slightly to Katy and me.
‘I’ll stall as much as I can,’ he repeated, then walked out of the department.
‘Fuck,’ Katy whimpered.
Zola was already sitting at the desk. ‘Never mind fuck, girl, read that code out to me.’ She snapped her fingers. ‘Let’s get a move on here, people!’
Katy held the paper up to her face. ‘OK, first we have capital K for Kevin.’ Zola pressed the key. ‘Then small b for boobs, as in small boobs, like mine.’ She giggled a bit. ‘Then W for wanker, sorry capital W for massive wanker.’
‘Ella?’ Zola hummed, sounding frustrated.
I grabbed the paper from Katy’s grip and finished the code using the correct phonetic alphabet like I was Juliet Bravo herself. When she was happy, it was checked and double-checked. Then Zola pressed enter, and a search bar with a small timer appeared on screen.
‘What now?’ I asked, feeling my arsehole twitch with nerves.
‘Now, we wait.’ Zola puffed.
I gulped; the countdown was happening. We stared at the screen as the search bar slowly moved along. I wondered what was happening in that boardroom and how Jimmy was doing with his stalling. If Fee was holding it all together; after all, she’d not only found out her husband was a cheat, but her brother was about to lose everything. My eyes stared back at the screen, hoping I could perform some Matilda badass shit to make it go faster. I could hear Zola’s foot tapping nervously on the floor.
‘Look!’ Zola pointed, making us all jump.
One match found.
