I opened the browser and logged into the secure cloud drive Koko had set up.

A notification blinked in the corner of the screen.

The upload was complete.

Koko had managed to copy the raw data files from the main R&D laboratory.

I opened the main folder, which was labeled with the project code for our new organic preservative line.

This was the project I had spent months developing before everything fell apart.

The screen filled with lines of chemical structures and molecular weights.

I squinted at the blue light, scrolling through the weekly quality control logs.

The initial phases looked normal.

The preservative, a natural compound derived from plant lipids, had passed all stability tests.

But as I scrolled down to the logs from the past two weeks, something changed.

The molecular weight of the active ingredient had shifted slightly.

I rubbed my eyes, thinking I was tired, and zoomed in on the mass spectrometry graphs.

The peak was different.

The original compound, a safe ester, had been replaced in the production batch logs.

I opened a side-by-side comparison tool on my desktop.