The Bug Inside His Tie

Chapter 1 - The Cut

The scissors closed with a sharp snap.

Victor Hale looked down.

The bottom of his purple tie was gone.

Six-year-old Lily stood beside his chair, frozen, the severed piece of silk clutched in one hand and a pair of pink children's scissors hanging from the other.

Victor's expression hardened instantly.

"What have you done?!"

Lily flinched.

Before Victor could stand, her mother rushed across the entrance hall.

Elena dropped to her knees beside her daughter, took the scissors away and wrapped a protective arm around the girl's shoulders.

"Please, sir! She's just a child!"

Victor stared at the ruined tie.

It had been handmade for him that morning.

He was scheduled to host a private dinner for several investors in less than an hour.

"Lily knows better than to touch—"

"But there's something inside your tie."

Victor stopped.

Lily lifted the piece she had cut away.

Her eyes were wet, but she pointed stubbornly toward a small bump beneath the lining.

Victor took it.

He peeled the silk apart with his thumb.

Something black appeared.

Smaller than a fingernail.

A tiny electronic device with a metallic component in its center.

Victor's anger disappeared.

"A bug..."

Elena went pale.

Victor looked at Lily.

"Who put it there?"

"The tailor."

Silence.

Victor's gaze snapped toward the security guard near the front entrance.

"Lock the doors. Nobody leaves."

The guard moved immediately.

Elena pulled Lily closer.

Victor rose slowly.

"Which tailor?"

Lily looked toward her mother before answering.

"The man downstairs."

Victor frowned.

There was no tailor downstairs.

The man who had delivered his suit that morning had already left.

Then Lily whispered something else.

"He told me not to tell you."

Victor's eyes narrowed.

"What exactly did he say?"

Lily swallowed.

"He said if I saw the little black thing again, I should pretend I didn't."

Victor's hand closed around the severed tie.

Again.

This wasn't the first listening device Lily had seen.