“If the altered file goes live, the city could halt construction immediately.”

“Not if I catch them in the act,” I said.

“I need to trace the digital signature of the modified document.”

Inside the room, I heard the rustle of paper and the sound of a laptop keyboard clicking.

“I’m opening the CAD software now,” Adrian said.

“The support columns for the southern span,” Sterling directed. “Make them look insufficient for the wind loads.”

“If the columns fail the simulated stress test, the city will condemn the foundation.”

“Exactly,” Adrian said.

I leaned against the wall, my heart hammering against my ribs.

I looked down at my phone, opening the network monitoring app.

The remote session was active.

The user was editing the DWG files directly on our shared staging server.

I watched the file size of the master blueprint fluctuate.

They were changing the steel reinforcement ratios in the concrete columns.

“They are reducing the rebar specification by thirty percent,” I whispered to Julian.

“If we built it that way, the seawall would collapse under high tide.”

“That is attempted manslaughter,” Julian said, his voice deadly quiet.