Chapter 77
Delete
Gray shook his head in frustration as the call went to voicemail again. He paced the length of the small office. He didn't want to keep leaving messages, so he'd just kept dialling, but on his fourth try he knew he needed to say something.
"Hi, Dr. Terry, it's Gray," he began, his voice tight with unease. "I need to talk to you as soon as possible. Something's happened here. My recorded data is gone. All of it. I don't know how, but--" He forced himself to stay calm. "Please call me back when you get this."
He hung up and stared at the phone for another few minutes, willing it to ring. Silence.
Unbeknownst to Gray, Dr. Mark Cameron was lounging comfortably in Dr. Terry's office, the Arctic team's absence giving him the perfect opportunity to meddle unnoticed.
His fingers hovered over the phone's keypad as he listened to Gray's voicemail from the day before, his lips curling into a self-satisfied smile.
With a deliberate motion, Mark tapped the button to delete the message. He paused for a moment, considering the blank screen, then nodded to himself, pleased.
When the next voicemail notification came through minutes later, he hit play and listened again, chuckling softly at Gray's mounting desperation. "Persistent, aren't we?" he said to the empty room.
"Oh, Gray, what a shame all your precious data is gone."
Mark's finger hovered over the delete button once more. "Not that it matters," he added with a smirk, pressing delete without hesitation.
Satisfied, he leaned back in Dr. Terry's chair, folding his hands behind his head. The Arctic research team wouldn't return for a few more weeks, and by that time, they would have nothing to find.