Ty Wallace POV
The alert popped up, and Ty nearly spilled his coffee.
"No," he muttered, leaning closer to the screen. "That can't be right."
He rubbed his eyes and checked again.
The server log blinked back at him, calm and uncaring.
Same result.
Ty's heart began to pound.
He had been at the charity office since early morning, fixing a printer that kept jamming and resetting passwords for volunteers who forgot theirs. Normal stuff. Boring stuff.
This was not boring.
Something in the system activity did not line up.
Ty scrolled slowly, his fingers stiff. He was not the kind of guy who liked trouble. He liked quiet. He liked things that made sense.
This did not.
A login had happened in the middle of the night. That alone was not strange. People worked late during the holidays.
But the trail after it was wrong.
Too clean.
Too empty.
"Logs don't just forget," Ty whispered.
He checked another section.
More gaps.
Ty swallowed.
He leaned back in his chair and looked around the small IT room. No one else was there. The hum of computers filled the space.
He told himself he was overthinking.
He always did that.
Still, he copied the log file into a private folder. Just in case.
Ty stood up and paced. He had only worked here a few months. He did not want to cause problems. He needed this job.
But if something was wrong, someone should know.
He thought about Carol Winters. She was kind, but busy.
Then he thought about Marcus Chen.
Marcus was always confident. Always sure.
Ty sighed and headed down the hall.
Marcus's office door was open. Marcus sat at his desk, typing fast.
"Uh, hi," Ty said softly.
Marcus did not look up. "What is it?"
"I was checking the server logs," Ty began. "And I noticed something odd."
Marcus sighed loudly and looked up. "Make it quick."
Ty's face warmed. "There are gaps. Missing entries. It could be nothing, but I thought I should mention it."
Marcus leaned back, his eyes sharp. "Are the systems running?"
"Yes," Ty said. "Everything works fine. It's just the history that looks off."
"Then it's nothing," Marcus replied. "These systems update all the time."
Ty hesitated. "I've worked with this software before. It usually doesn't do this."
Marcus's jaw tightened. "Are you questioning my handling of things?"
"No," Ty said quickly. "I just wanted to be careful."
Marcus stood up. "Careful about what? Creating panic?"
Ty shook his head. "No, sir."
Marcus stepped closer. "Listen. We are in the middle of a very important season. I do not need distractions."
Ty nodded, his stomach twisting. "Okay."
Marcus waved him away. "Go fix something useful."
Ty turned and left, his ears burning.
As he walked back to the IT room, he passed Elara in the hallway. She smiled at him.
"Morning, Ty," she said.
"Morning," he replied.
She looked tired. And worried.
That made the feeling in his chest worse.
Back in his chair, Ty stared at the screen again.
Marcus had dismissed him too fast.
Too sharp.
Ty reopened the private folder and reviewed the logs once more. He noticed something new.
The missing entries all lined up with the same user access.
Elara Quinn.
Ty frowned.
"That doesn't make sense," he whispered.
Elara barely knew how the system worked. She always asked him for help with technical things.
And she would never delete logs.
Never.
Ty glanced at the door, then back at the screen.
His fingers hovered over the keyboard.
If Marcus was right, this was nothing.
If Marcus was wrong, someone was setting Elara up.
Ty swallowed hard.
He thought of Elara's smile. Of how she thanked everyone. Of how she stayed late to help families.
She did not feel like a criminal.
He pulled up another tool. One that tracked deeper activity.
"Just looking," he told himself. "Just confirming."
The scan took longer than he liked.
While he waited, Ty thought about Christmas at home. His mom baking cookies. His dad fixing old lights. Simple. Safe.
This place did not feel safe right now.
The scan finished.
Ty leaned forward.
His heart sank.
There were signs of manual deletion.
Careful ones.
Someone who knew what they were doing.
Ty's hands shook.
"This is bad," he whispered.
He saved screenshots and backed them up on a small drive he kept on his keychain. He did not know why he did it. He just knew he had to.
The door creaked open.
Ty jumped and slammed his laptop shut.
"Relax," a voice said. "It's just me."
A volunteer poked her head in, smiling. "The printer's jammed again."
Ty forced a laugh. "Of course it is."
He fixed the printer with shaking hands, his mind racing.
Someone powerful was involved.
And Marcus knew.
Ty returned to his desk after lunch. He tried to act normal. He answered emails. He reset passwords.
Still, the truth sat heavy in his pocket.
That evening, the building grew quiet. Lights dimmed. People left.
Ty stayed.
He reopened the system and dug deeper.
If he was going to do this, he had to do it right.
Another log appeared.
Another gap.
His breath caught.
He traced it back.
Same pattern.
Same timing.
"This isn't random," Ty muttered. "This is planned."
A sound echoed down the hall.
Footsteps.
Ty froze and closed everything fast.
The footsteps passed by.
Ty exhaled slowly.
He sat back and stared at the dark screen.
He thought about telling Carol.
About warning Elara.
About what might happen if he was wrong.
Then he thought about what would happen if he was right and stayed silent.
Ty stood up and grabbed his jacket.
As he headed for the door, he whispered to himself, barely loud enough to hear.
"Something's not right here."
And for the first time since he took the job, Ty Wallace decided he was not going to look away.