A Caged Songbird's Escape: Into the Arms of a Predator novel Chapter 273

Elissa gave a small, knowing smile, arching one brow as she turned to Zachary Jones. “Mr. Jones, do you have the number for the head of security?”

Zachary considered for a moment. “You mean Abel?”

She nodded. “Yes, that’s right.”

He looked at her, puzzled. “What do you need his number for?”

He couldn’t quite guess her intentions, but something told him she’d had things under control from the very start.

James let out a mocking laugh. “Yeah, what do you need his number for? Can’t admit your own mistakes, so now you’re going to hassle the security team?”

At her age, it wasn’t surprising—young girls often didn’t know how to pick their battles, and causing a fuss seemed par for the course.

Elissa’s gaze turned cold as she watched their smug expressions. With a delicate finger, she tapped on the glass, pointing toward the smoke detectors on the lab’s ceiling. “You ever wonder why there are two smoke detectors in this lab?”

Raymond shrugged, unbothered. “What’s so weird about that? This is the most important lab in R&D—a lot of sensitive data comes out of here. Of course we have to be extra careful about fire hazards…”

Though, to be fair, none of them had ever bothered to pay attention to the details.

Elissa cut him off with a slight smile. “That’s not it.”

She let the words hang for a moment, then clarified, “It’s to guard against people, not just fires.”

James shot her a suspicious look, following the line of her finger. His expression darkened. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Elissa remained calm, her voice steady as she explained, “It means the one on the left is a regular smoke detector, but the one on the right? That’s a camera, disguised as a detector.”

“It’s wired separately, so it keeps running no matter what happens to the main power.”

As the two looked like they were about to come to blows, Zachary quickly signaled for the others to step in and separate them. He turned to Elissa. “Ms. Drummond, let me handle this. I promise you’ll get a full explanation.”

He and Cliff, more than anyone, knew how many nights Elissa had lost working on this project. And now, thanks to her own team, even the experiment results were compromised.

Elissa nodded, and Zachary rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I’m afraid you’ll have to redo the data.”

“It’s fine,” she replied, glancing at the two troublemakers before picking up the ruined experiment results and heading into the adjacent lab.

Zachary was a fair manager; she doubted she’d see either of those two in R&D again.

Of course, with the data corrupted, the whole experiment would have to start from scratch.

Having barely slept the night before, Elissa felt exhaustion creeping in as dusk settled outside. No point in wasting energy when she could barely keep her eyes open; she wrapped up her work, packed her things, and left for the evening with Cliff.