Chapter 133

[ 1,117 words ]

Katia’s POV

Sam was at my office door at seven thirty Monday morning.

She had a coffee in each hand and the expression she wore when she had found something she was not happy about finding. She set one coffee on my desk, kept the other, and sat down.

“His name is Daniel Osei,” she said. “Mid-level systems engineer. Been with IG for three years. Solid performer, no complaints, no flags.” She opened her tablet. “Six months ago he was approached by a Halo Systems recruiter. Lunch meeting, nothing on paper. Two weeks later his personal bank account received a transfer from a shell company registered in Malta p>

I looked at the tablet. At the number.

“That’s not recruitment money,” I said.

“No. That’s access money.” Sam turned the tablet back toward herself. “He’s been feeding them for six months. Nothing catastrophic, no core architecture, no client data. Just operational details. Expansion timelines. Meeting outcomes. The Amsterdam node relocation p>

The Amsterdam node. The detail Victor had known about in Dubai. The one that had told me immediately that someone inside was talking.

“Where is he now?” I said.

“Downstairs. He came in at seven. He doesn’t know we know p>

I drank my coffee. I thought about Daniel Osei, three years of solid work, no complaints, no flags, a lunch meeting with a Halo recruiter and a Malta shell company deposit. I thought about what Victor Hale had been building for eighteen months and what six months of inside access had given him.

I thought about what I wanted to do next.

“Bring him up,” I said.

Daniel Osei was thirty-one, compact, with the careful stillness of someone who had walked into a room and immediately understood something was wrong. He sat across from me. Sam stood at the window. The door was closed.

I let the silence run for ten seconds.

“Daniel,” I said. “I’m going to give you one opportunity to be honest with me. If you take it, we’ll have a productive conversation. If you don’t, you’ll be escorted from the building in the next fifteen minutes, and our legal team will begin proceedings by this afternoon.” I held his gaze. “How long have you been feeding information to Halo Systems p>

He went very still.

Then something in his face changed. Not guilt — something more complicated. The expression of a man who had known this moment was coming and had not decided until right now what he was going to do when it arrived.

“Six months,” he said.

“What did they ask for p>

“Operational details. Nothing structural, nothing client-facing. They were specific about that.” He paused and then went on. “They said it was competitive intelligence. Standard industry practice p>

“They paid you from a Malta shell company,” I said. “Does that sound like standard industry practice p>

He said nothing.

“What do they know?” I said. “Everything. Start from the first meeting p>

He told me. It took twenty minutes. Sam took notes without looking up. I listened without interrupting. By the end I had a complete picture of what Halo had — enough to understand the gaps in their intelligence and exactly where they thought IG was vulnerable.

They were wrong about most of it. Deliberately so, in some cases, because Sam had been compartmentalising sensitive information for months on general principle. But they had enough to be dangerous if they used it correctly.

I looked at Daniel Osei across my desk.

“You’re fired,” I said.

He nodded. He had expected that.

“And you’re hired,” I said.

He blinked.

“A fifty per cent raise, effective today. You stay in your role. You continue to feed Halo Systems information, information that I will give you specifically for that purpose.” I leaned forward. “You will be the most valuable employee I have for the next six months because Victor Hale trusts you. And I am going to use that trust to walk him into a wall.” I held his gaze. “If you do this correctly, the Malta payments stop and your IG salary increases significantly. If you make one move I don’t sanction, the legal team gets the full file.” I paused and stared at him. “Do you understand what I’m offering you p>

He looked at me for a long moment.

“Yes,” he said.

“Good.” I stood. “Sam will brief you on the first data package this afternoon. Nothing leaves this room. You tell nobody, not a recruiter, not a contact, nobody.” I looked at him directly. “Victor Hale thinks he has an asset inside IG Technologies. What he actually has is a problem he doesn’t know about yet p>

Daniel Osei nodded slowly. Then he said, “Ms Kensington, why are you giving me a second chance p>

I picked up my coffee.

“Because you’re more useful to me inside than outside,” I said. “Don’t make me regret the math p>

He nodded and then left.

Sam waited until the door closed.

“That was either genius or completely insane,” she said.

“Both, usually,” I said.

She almost smiled. “The data package. What do we feed him p>

I had been thinking about this since six AM. Victor Hale had eighteen months of careful, patient work building a picture of IG Technologies. He had recruited an inside source. He had made a direct approach in Dubai. He was thorough and he was smart and he was expecting me to find the leak, seal it, and go quiet.

He was not expecting me to weaponize it.

“We give him exactly what he’s looking for,” I said. “The Middle East expansion timeline, the government contract pipeline, and the infrastructure build sequence.” I sat back down. “All of it slightly wrong. Not obviously wrong — wrong in the specific places that will lead him to bid on contracts we are not pursuing, in markets we are not entering, and on timelines that don’t exist p>

Sam wrote it down. “How long before he figures it out p>

“Three months minimum. Maybe four.” I picked up my phone. “By which point Julian’s team will have finished pulling his full history, and we’ll know what he actually wants p>

Sam looked at me. “You’ve already talked to Julian about this p>

“Not yet,” I said. “But I will p>

She nodded. At the door she paused. “Kat. Victor Hale flew to Dubai specifically because you were there. That’s not a business rival. That’s something else p>

“I know,” I said.

“So be careful p>

“I’m always careful,” I said.

She gave me the look that meant she disagreed but had decided not to argue about it today.

I was already drafting the first false data package in my head.

Victor Hale wanted a war. He had no idea who he had started it with.

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