Victoria Sterling sat next to him, sipping coffee from a porcelain cup.

She looked up as the doors opened, her face instantly losing its color.

She dropped her spoon, and it clinked loudly against the saucer.

“Andrew,” Julian said, recovering his composure quickly. “We were just discussing the tragic incident at the lab.”

“I am sure you were,” Andrew said, walking to the head of the table.

I stood beside him, holding the flash drive in my hand.

“What is she doing here?” Victoria asked, her voice shrill. “This is a closed board meeting.”

“Elila Smith is the lead researcher of Project Ceres,” Andrew said. “She has every right to be here.”

“The project is gone, Andrew,” Julian said, leaning back in his chair. “The lab burned down last night.”

“The physical lab is damaged,” I said, stepping forward. “But the data is safe.”

I walked to the podium and inserted the flash drive into the projector input.

The large screen on the wall flickered to life.

“This is the complete chemical blueprint for the preservation formula,” I said.