Chapter 257
On the other end of the line, Ethan felt a suffocating wave of despair rather than excitement when he heard her casually state she owed him a favor.
Just how deep did her disappointment run? Was she truly unwilling to forgive him even now?
Still, the fact that she had accepted his intel today was a silver lining.
He believed with all his heart that as long as he tirelessly proved his loyalty, he could eventually win his sister back.
Meanwhile, Mira had already speed-dialed Grant Ziegler. “Contact every single branch manager right now,” she ordered. “Freeze all vegetable inventory from this afternoon’s shipment. Do not let anyone touch it p>
She explicitly commanded them to stay far away from the spinach.
Simultaneously, she had Brayden Knox call Owen and Master Ellis to rendezvous at their location.
The address Ethan had provided, Westgate Wholesale Market, was one of the city’s largest produce hubs.
Mira had no idea if the spiked spinach had been bought for a single branch, a handful of locations, or if the entire chain sourced its greens from that exact market.
The afternoon shipments were specifically meant for dinner service.
Because business was booming so fiercely, the morning produce was almost entirely wiped out by the lunch rush. Double daily deliveries had become mandatory just to keep the ingredients fresh and in stock.
Thankfully, the sun hadn’t set yet, and the evening rush hadn’t begun. Vegetables like spinach were prepped, washed, and plated strictly on demand.
Which meant the tainted stock likely hadn’t been served to a single customer yet.
The group rapidly converged at the branch. Master Ellis pulled out a VeriScan Probe, a specialized instrument capable of detecting nearly any commercial toxin on the market.
As for rare, exorbitantly expensive designer poisons, their enemies wouldn’t dare use them.
Not only were they cost-prohibitive, but acquiring them required strict identification, leaving a massive paper trail that could easily be traced back to the buyer.
Grant Ziegler had already cross-checked the supply chain across all locations. Only three branches had sourced their greens from Westgate Wholesale Market today.
They had the staff lay out the afternoon’s shipment for systematic testing. The rest of the produce came up perfectly clean, but the second they leaned close to the crates of spinach, a distinct, acrid stench of garlic hit the air.
Even though the other branches hadn’t bought from Westgate, a crisis of this magnitude prompted Master Ellis to dispatch personnel to test the inventory at every single location.
“If I’m not mistaken, they sprayed this with zinc phosphide p>
Master Ellis stated grimly.
A master apothecary could identify a lethal compound just by its odor.
Zinc phosphide was a fast-acting, highly lethal rat poison. It was more than enough to kill a human being.
It revealed just how unimaginably vicious the saboteur was. To ruin Solflare Hearth & Grill’s reputation, they were perfectly willing to massacre innocent patrons.
Just then, the inspectors deployed to the other branches reported back. Everything else was clean. A heavy, collective sigh of relief swept through the room.
By this time, the three purchasing agents responsible for the tainted batch had practically collapsed in terror.
This was a mass-casualty event waiting to happen. If the boss hadn’t received the intel in time, the fallout would have been catastrophic.
Getting fired would be the least of their worries. If customers had died, their sheer negligence could have landed them behind bars.
“The spinach reeked. How could none of you notice p>
“I… I did smell a sharp garlic odor,” one stammered. “But there was a massive crate of actual garlic sitting right next to the spinach stall.
assumed the smell was just bleeding over p>
The other two nodded fervently, admitting they had made the exact same assumption.
“But once you loaded it into the truck, away from the garlic crates, it still reeked. Didn’t that strike you as completely bizarre p>
“We also bought a ton of garlic shoots in the same haul, so I thought p>
This is entirely my fault for being so careless. I swear, it will never happen again p>
“Should we take this to the media p>
Owen asked Mira.
Exposing that poisoned food was found inside the restaurant-even if it hadn’t reached a single
plate would give malicious rivals the perfect ammunition to spin a PR nightmare, crippling their business.
“Can we publicize our safety protocols? Can that VeriScan Probe be deployed permanently p>
Mira turned to her master.
If they revealed to the public that every branch used military-grade toxin scanners, it wouldn’t scare customers away. Instead, it would make herTeel safer than ever
“You don’t need to explain the exact mechanics. Just broadcast that we have an
infallible method for screening ingredients.