Twenty-three hours after sending the phishing email, Barry sat at his workstation in the CCPD crime lab, staring at a microscope slide without actually seeing it.
His mind was split between two realities.
The first was the physical world around him. The hum of fluorescent lights overhead.
The chemical smell of the evidence processing solutions.
The soft clicking of keyboards as other forensic technicians typed up reports. All of it familiar and mundane.
The second reality existed on his encrypted laptop, currently hidden in his car three floors below. A laptop that might contain a notification telling him whether Clifford DeVoe had taken the bait.
Or it might contain nothing. Twenty-three hours of waiting. Twenty-three hours of uncertainty eating at his enhanced mind like acid.
Barry forced himself to focus on the slide. Blood sample from a domestic assault case. He needed to type the blood, run the analysis, write the report.
Standard work that normally took him forty-five minutes but his enhanced intellect could complete in fifteen.
His phone buzzed in his pocket.
Barry pulled it out under the desk, glancing at the screen. Text from Iris.
"Interview went well! They want me to do a follow-up piece on Queen Consolidated's stock situation. Coffee to celebrate?"
Barry typed back quickly: "That's great. Raincheck? Swamped at work today."
The reply came immediately: "You're always swamped lately. But okay. This weekend?"
"Definitely."
Barry pocketed the phone and went back to his microscope. His mind ran probability calculations automatically. If DeVoe had checked his email in the last twenty-three hours, there was an 87% chance he'd clicked the phishing link. Most people checked university email at least once daily. The urgency of the message made it unlikely he'd ignore it.
But 87% wasn't 100%. And the 13% chance of failure gnawed at him.
"Allen, you good?"
Barry looked up to see Marcus Chen standing beside his workstation, holding a coffee cup and wearing a concerned expression.
"Yeah, why?" Barry kept his voice casual.
"You've been staring at that slide for ten minutes without moving." Marcus gestured at the microscope.
"That's not like you. Usually you're done with samples in like five minutes and moving on to the next thing."
Barry forced a smile. "Just tired. Didn't sleep well last night."
"You feeling sick? You look kind of pale."
"I'm fine." Barry turned back to the microscope, making a show of adjusting the focus. "Just need more coffee probably."
Marcus lingered for another moment, then shrugged and walked back to his station.
Barry waited until he was gone before exhaling slowly.
He was getting sloppy. The distraction was showing. People were noticing.
This couldn't continue. Working at CCPD while building his real plans was becoming impossible. His mind was too occupied with variables and timelines and contingencies to properly focus on processing evidence.
He needed to quit. But not yet. Not until the Queen Consolidated play paid off and he had real capital to work with.
Eight more days. He just needed to hold it together for eight more days.
Barry finished the blood analysis in twelve minutes, typing up a report that was technically flawless but lacked the usual attention to detail he normally provided. Good enough. The case wasn't complicated anyway.
At 11:47 AM, Barry stood up and grabbed his jacket.
"Taking lunch," he called to the lab in general.
"Want me to grab you something?" Marcus asked without looking up from his computer.
"Nah, running errands."
Barry left the building, taking the stairs down three floors instead of waiting for the elevator. His heart rate was elevated.
Not from the physical activity. From anticipation.
He reached his car in the parking garage and unlocked it quickly, sliding into the driver's seat. The laptop bag sat in the passenger footwell where he'd hidden it under a jacket.
Barry pulled out the laptop and powered it on.
The old machine took forever to boot up. Forty-seven seconds that felt like forty-seven minutes.
Finally, the desktop loaded. Barry connected to his phone's hotspot and opened his encrypted browser, navigating to the server where the fake login portal logged all access attempts.
One new notification.