Revenge proves its own executioner – JOHN FORD

Cat was dropped off at the office the next day by Jason. She had half expected Alex to be waiting inside the lavish black Bentley Continental GT. But she realized that since he was away she could investigate all the hidden details of the Theta Project. It was the one venture she'd found absolutely no details about in the files handed over to her. From Max's briefing report, she knew that it had started seven years ago but was quickly scrapped within a few months. After draining millions of dollars of company funds, there were no records or documentation about its details, except a balance sheet noting the expenditure for tax purposes. She decided she wasn't going to leave the office that day without finding all there was to know about it.

"I'll be up as soon as I park," Jason informed her.

"Take all the time you need, Jason."

As she entered her office and removed her coat, she thought about the layout of the building she'd been given. She knew there was an Archives section on the fifteenth floor. Since all her attempts at hacking into Knight Inc's mainframe and the data she'd stolen from Alex's PC had gotten her zilch, she needed access to those Archives. With a devilish smile on her lips, she decided that Claire was going to help her get what she wanted. After all, Alex Knight himself had said she could get all the help she wanted from his secretary.

So what if she was twisting his words to suit her? Claire didn't need to know that.

"Good morning Claire. I need you to collate some data for me and take any messages as I'm not available to anyone for the rest of the day."

"Sure, Ms. Banning. Anything else I may do for you?" She noticed Claire's passcode badge lying next to her purse.

Tut tut, how careless of her.

This was easier than taking candy from a baby. Now all she had to do was lose Jason for the rest of the morning.

"No one is to disturb me for the rest of the day. Inform Jason that he is free for the rest of the day. I'll contact him when I'm ready to leave."

She made for her office down the hall as Claire spied surreptitiously at her. But as soon as she was distracted by a call, Cat slipped out to the emergency exit near the end of the hall.

An ancient guard named Joe kept track of the employees visiting the Archives section. With Claire's security passcode in hand, she made up some excuse of being a new employee having temporary access to a colleague's badge. The layout of this floor deviated slightly from the top floor where she worked at. Instead of a hallway that branched off to executive offices and private cabins, this floor was divided into a rabbit's maze of cubicles around a vault-like structure that housed the Archives on the northern section of the floor. Watching people work in their cubicles reminded her of a hamster cycling endlessly on a wheel in his cage.

She gave a small smile to Joe as she swiped her card on the scanner installed at the entrance of the vault. He looked stoically at her but returned her smile. After all the jobs she had done Cat realized that people always responded to an air of confidence and authority even if one didn't belong there. So keeping that in mind, she entered the room and found the sheer massiveness of shelves upon shelves lined with huge cabinets holding papers and files along the room's walls and stocked like a magnified version of a child's playhouse, pretty daunting.

"Hello, Ms. Douglas. Didn't know that people on the top floor actually knew this section existed. How may I help you today?"

A preppy young college intern type, complete with blonde locks and surfer looks walked up to her. She took in the wide circular room and tried to figure out the filing system for racks upon racks of paper generated as a result of Alex's flourishing business.

"Who are you?"

"I apologize for being rude. My name is Teddy Winters. My associates and I run this section. I am in charge of cataloging and entering all the records here."

"I'm Ms. Banning. I'm a consultant for Knight Inc and don't have my own passcodes yet," She replied distractedly walking deeper into the room. She noticed that two desks were placed adjacent to each other on the far left hidden by a huge shelf. That's why she probably hadn't noticed it at first glance. The desk supported MAC computers and high-tech hardware that was probably needed to track the data flow in here.

"Oh, since the card you swiped alerted us to Ms. Claire Douglas' entry, I thought you were her. Anyway, I'll check with someone to give you your own access. I was informed that you may be stopping by."

"You were? By who?" She looked at him hoping that Alex hadn't already guessed what she was really here for.

"By Ms. Douglas, of course. I am to help you in any way I can."

She'd heard that before. Dammit, this was going to be tricky. She didn't need to alert Alex of her real mission here. The bug she'd planted on him the other night had disappointedly not yielded any results. Yet.

Stopping herself from rolling her eyes and expressing her frustration she continued, "So you are in charge of monitoring all the records and system data? Wow. Sucks to be you."

Teddy laughed and replied in a flirtatious manner, "Oh, it's not so bad. Once in a while, I get lucky enough to meet heavenly angels like you that wander into my domain."

Not wanting to encourage Teddy and feeling a sense of urgency to get what she came for, she spoke a little brusquely. Her guard dogs wouldn't be patient for long.

"An angel? Really, you really must get out more," She replied dryly and he grinned.

"I do. As a matter of fact, my friends and I are planning to go out this-"

"Actually, I just wanted to verify some data for a past client...." Cat changed the subject as she really didn't want to encourage the young man.

"Well, that should be easy enough to do. The files are dated chronologically and correspond with the numeric code for the project. You can check the relevant shelf if you know the date or the passcode of the project."

"Ok, thanks. I'll check on my own," Hopefully her brusque tone and aloof manner would dissuade Don Juan.

"My pleasure. We're still updating our systems and cataloging them online. Let me know if you want anything else, I'll just be over at my desk," He chirped and backed away.

"I think I can manage from here. Thanks."