Chapter 4 - The Object in the DarkJudge Sterling slowly rose from his chair.
“Why?”
Maya couldn't explain everything.
Not yet.
“There is something underneath it.”
Julian laughed nervously.
“This is absurd.”
Arthur studied Maya's face.
She looked terrified, but not dishonest.
Then the judge did something no one expected.
He knelt.
The ballroom fell completely silent.
Arthur reached beneath the heavy mahogany chair.
His fingers touched velvet.
Then metal.
His expression changed.
He carefully withdrew a tiny device hidden inside the upholstery.
It was sophisticated, compact, and unmistakably dangerous.
Arthur recognized enough about its construction to understand what it was designed to do.
A concealed delivery mechanism.
A weapon designed to cause a lethal medical event without immediately revealing its source.
His eyes became ice-cold.
He slipped the device into his pocket.
Then he stood.
His gaze moved slowly across the ballroom.
Finally, it stopped on Eleanor Vance.
“So,” he said quietly, “it was someone at this table.”
Eleanor's face turned white.
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Maya felt the entire room shift.
The invisible kitchen girl was suddenly the only person standing between a federal judge and death.
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