Everyone froze.
I listened.
Footsteps.
Somewhere beyond Bay Three.
Fast.
Moving away.
“Security!” Richard shouted.
Two guards ran toward the corridor.
I followed.
Mason grabbed my arm.
“Ethan, wait.”
I stopped.
“What?”
He pointed toward the laptop.
The countdown was still running.
00:18:32
“We don’t have time.”
He was right.
I turned back toward the machine.
“Walter, bring me the original mechanical calibration tools.”
Walter nodded.
“Mason, isolate the controller.”
“Already doing it.”
“Tyler, stay here.”
Tyler looked surprised.
“You trust me?”
“No.”
I looked him directly in the eyes.
“But I need someone who knows what the saboteur changed.”
Richard remained near the entrance.
“Where are you going?”
“Fixing your machine.”
He nodded.
Then I stopped.
“After I document everything.”
He understood.
This time, he didn’t argue.
I opened the service panel.
The hidden fail-safe wasn’t a normal software command.
It was connected to the machine’s safety architecture.
Someone had created a delayed parameter switch.
At 6:30, the machine would automatically load a corrupted compensation table.
The machine would then attempt to compensate for errors that didn’t exist.
That could cause a catastrophic production failure.
Not an explosion.
Something worse for a manufacturing company.
A precision machine destroying expensive material, tooling, and potentially its own spindle.
The loss could easily exceed several hundred thousand dollars.
I checked the remaining time.
14:06
“Walter.”
“Yeah?”
“I need the original mechanical alignment record.”
He handed it over.
I compared the numbers.
The machine had drifted by less than a millimeter.
That seemed insignificant.
It wasn’t.
The sabotage depended on that tiny difference.
Someone had deliberately created a false calibration condition.
I looked at Tyler.
“Who taught you this system?”
“Ethan.”
“Who else?”
“Only the commissioning team.”
I frowned.
“Then how did the consultant know?”
Tyler didn’t answer.
Richard stepped forward.
“Because someone inside Horizon gave them the information.”
We all looked at him.
Richard continued.
“Only five people had access to the full commissioning package.”
“Names.”
“Ethan.”
“Mason.”
“Tyler.”
“Me.”
“And the consultant.”
I stared at him.
“The consultant wasn’t an employee.”
“No.”
“Then someone gave them access.”
Richard nodded.
“Exactly.”
Mason suddenly said, “There’s another person.”
I turned.
“Who?”
“Daniel Mercer.”
I knew the name.
Horizon’s Chief Financial Officer.
He had been pushing for aggressive cost reductions for months.
“Does Daniel have engineering access?”
“Not officially.”
“Then why did you mention him?”
Mason hesitated.
“Because I saw him in Bay Three yesterday.”
Richard’s expression changed.
“When?”
“After midnight.”
Tyler looked at him.
“That was him.”
I turned.
“You’re sure?”
Tyler nodded.
“I saw someone leave the machine room.”
“Why didn’t you say that earlier?”
“Because I couldn’t see his face.”
Mason opened the security system.
“I’m pulling camera footage.”
The footage loaded.
A timestamp appeared.
12:43 AM.
A man entered Bay Three.
He wore a dark jacket.
His face wasn’t visible.
He went directly to the controller.
Then the video froze.
Mason frowned.
“The camera was disabled.”
“For how long?”
“Eight minutes.”
I looked at the machine.
Richard whispered, “The same eight minutes between my login and Tyler’s.”
I stared at him.
“Your login was at 12:43.”
He nodded.
“Tyler’s was at 12:51.”
I looked at Tyler.
“You didn’t enter the machine room at 12:51?”
“No.”
“Then whose device connected?”
Tyler shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
The countdown continued.
08:19
I pulled the controller cover open.
The hidden override module was physically installed.
I recognized the hardware.
My own design.
I had developed that module two years earlier to prevent unauthorized parameter changes.
Only six units existed.
I had personally installed four.
The other two were stored in engineering inventory.
I looked at Richard.
“Where are the other modules?”
He stared at me.
“I don’t know.”
“Someone used one of mine.”
Mason checked the inventory.
His face went pale.
“Ethan.”
“What?”
“Both missing modules were signed out yesterday.”
“By whom?”
He looked at the record.
“Daniel Mercer.”
Richard’s face went white.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“You know something.”
“I don’t.”
“You do.”
Richard shook his head.
“Daniel has been pushing for restructuring, but I didn’t know he was involved in this.”
The countdown reached:
04:02
I had four minutes.
I disconnected the corrupted module.
Nothing happened.
Then the controller alarm changed.
SAFETY CIRCUIT OPEN.
The machine shut down completely.
Walter looked at me.
“Did we just make it worse?”
“No.”
I reached into my tool case.
I pulled out the screwdriver Walter had given me after my tenth anniversary.
The same small screwdriver kit that had sat in my cardboard box all afternoon.
I smiled.
“Let’s finish what they started.”
I rebuilt the safety circuit manually.
One wire.
Then another.
The countdown reached zero.
Nothing happened.
The machine remained silent.
Mason stared at the controller.
“We stopped it.”
I exhaled.
Then the factory doors opened.
Daniel Mercer walked into Bay Three.
He looked at the machine.
Then at me.
Then at the disconnected override module.
His face changed.
“You weren’t supposed to still be here.”
I slowly stood.
“You’re right.”
Daniel looked at Richard.
“What have you done?”
Richard stared at him.
“You tell me.”
Daniel turned toward the exit.
Security blocked his path.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
CLICK HERE CONTINUE TO READ PART 5– THE PERSON HIDING INSIDE HORIZON The emergency lights came on.
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