Chapter 3 - The Ghost in the Ledger
The night stretched into a blur of shadows and static. While the official security teams were busy questioning the waitstaff and reviewing corrupted camera footage, Daniel slipped into the dark corners of the Harrow Estate. He knew that the answers weren't in the ballroom; they were in the data.
Using a bypass keycard he’d "borrowed" from Sterling’s desk, Daniel accessed the server farm hidden in the basement. The humming of the cooling fans was the only sound as he dove into the estate’s network. He wasn't just looking for the waiter; he was looking for the signal that had overridden the security locks.
It didn't take long to find the intrusion. A backdoor had been installed in the network months ago, disguised as a routine update from a third-party cybersecurity firm—a firm owned by a shell company linked directly to Mercer.
Daniel felt a chill climb his spine. The hack hadn't been to let the assassin in; it had been to watch. Mercer had been watching Victoria, monitoring her private conversations, tracking her movements, and even listening to her lullabies to Lily for months.
He found the file named Project Eclipse. It was a comprehensive strategy for the total liquidation of Hargrove Holdings, timed precisely to the merger deadline. He copied the files to a secure drive and was about to pull out when the system alarm chirped—a soft, innocuous sound that signaled an external login.
Someone was here.
Daniel ducked behind a rack of servers, his hand reaching for his sidearm. The heavy steel door at the end of the aisle creaked open. Two men entered, wearing the sleek, nondescript black uniforms of the estate security detail, but their gait was different. They were precise, lethal, and carrying silenced pistols.
"The guard," one whispered. "The one with the daughter in the hospital. Find him. He’s the only variable we didn't account for."
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Daniel bit his lip. They knew about Kora. They knew about his weakness. This wasn't just a business dispute; this was a personal vendetta. He waited for them to pass, his breath steadying, his mind mapping every exit. He had to get this drive to Victoria, but first, he had to survive the men who were sent to bury him.
He moved with the silence of a predator, taking the first man down with a swift strike to the neck before the second could turn around. A quick scramble of limbs, a muffled grunt, and silence returned to the server room. Daniel looked at the bodies, then back at the drive. The war had just gone hot.
