Chapter 130

[ 1,176 words ]

Julian’s POV

I put the Halo Systems file on the table in front of Zane at eight AM and watched him read it.

He read fast. Zane always read fast — he processed information the way he did everything, efficiently and without drama. But halfway through the second page he stopped. He went back. He read something again.

Then he looked up at me.

“Eighteen months,” he said.

“Eighteen months,” I confirmed.

Zane looked back at the file. “They didn’t undercut her bids. They didn’t compete directly at all.” He turned a page. “They planted doubt. Fabricated security audit failures. Made IG look like it had vulnerabilities it didn’t have.” He turned another page. “And then they leaked it — not publicly, not in a way you could trace, just to the right people in the right procurement offices. The kind of people who don’t need proof. They just need a reason to hesitate p>

“Yes,” I said.

“That’s not a competitor,” Zane said. “That’s a demolition job. Slow, clean, no fingerprints.” He set the file down. “Julian. I’ve seen this pattern before p>

“I know you have,” I said. “So have I p>

Four years ago. A rival had done exactly this to WEG — not competing, not attacking directly, just planting doubt in the right places at the right times. Fabricated reports. Strategic leaks. The kind of campaign that was impossible to defend against because there was nothing to defend against. No attack to respond to. Just a slow erosion of confidence in the target, one hesitant procurement officer at a time.

It had cost WEG two significant government contracts and six months of legal fees before I had traced it back to its source.

The source had been a consulting firm. The consulting firm had since dissolved. The man behind it had moved on.

His name had been in that consulting firm’s ownership records.

Victor Hale.

“He did the same thing to WEG four years ago,” I said. “Different vehicle. Same methodology. Same outcome designed.” I picked up the file. “He’s been practising p>

Zane was quiet for a moment. “Does Katia know p>

“She knows he’s dangerous. Sam ran a surface background check before their meeting this morning. She’ll find the growth rate anomaly — the first two years of Halo don’t add up — but she won’t get to the WEG connection without access to records she doesn’t have p>

“So she doesn’t know the full picture p>

“Not yet p>

Zane looked at me. “Are you going to tell her p>

I thought about that. About a woman who had built IG Technologies from nothing with her own hands, who managed fifteen lawyers through a shell entity and a ghost spokesperson and a keycard alibi and a clean exit from a circuit at two in the morning. A woman who was already, right now, probably three moves into thinking about Victor Hale.

A woman who would be furious if she found out I had this information and made a decision about it without her.

“Not yet,” I said.

Zane raised an eyebrow.

“Knowing about the threat won’t protect her,” I said. “Having it neutralised will. If I tell her now, she’ll want to move on it herself, and Victor will see her coming. He’s expecting her to move. He’s not expecting me p>

“Julian.” Zane’s voice had the specific quality it got when he was about to say something I wasn’t going to enjoy. “She’s not going to like that you sat on this p>

“No,” I agreed. “She’s not p>

“When she finds out p>

“I know p>

“She’s going to be seriously pissed off p>

“I know that too.” I picked up my phone. “That’s a conversation for later. Right now I need you to pull everything on Victor Hale going back ten years. Every company he’s touched. Every contract. Every person.” I paused. “And I need you to find who helped him build Halo Systems in two years. That kind of growth doesn’t happen without a patron. Someone gave him his first contracts. I want to know who p>

Zane wrote it down. “Timeline p>

“Yesterday p>

He nodded and stood up. At the door he stopped.

“Julian p>

“What p>

“The Amsterdam node detail,” he said. “The one Victor knew about. That meeting was internal — IG and WEG both. Which means the leak is either inside IG’s team or inside ours p>

I had been thinking about that since six AM.

“I know,” I said. “Add it to the list p>

Zane left.

I sat with the file.

Eighteen months. Victor Hale had been working on Katia for eighteen months — before I knew who she was, before the WEG-IG partnership, and before she walked into my boardroom. He had been building a case against IG Technologies while I was still searching for a woman named Kat in a city named Las Vegas with no surname and no face.

He had found her first.

Not who she was—I didn’t think he knew about Catwoman or about Vegas or about any of the things I now suspected. But he had found the company. He had identified IG Technologies as a target and had spent eighteen months quietly making it harder for her to grow.

Why?

That was the question I couldn’t answer yet. Victor Hale was worth significant money. He didn’t need IG’s market share. The 40% acquisition offer was a number designed to impress, not to win — he knew she would refuse it. The meeting this morning had not been about buying into IG. It had been about making contact. About seeing her in person. About delivering a message that said, ’I know who you are, and I have been watching you, and you should be paying attention to me p>

What did Victor Hale want with Katia Kensington?

I closed the file.

I needed to think about this carefully. Victor was intelligent and patient, and he had a ten-year track record of getting what he wanted without leaving evidence. If I moved against him clumsily, I would push him underground and lose the trail entirely.

I needed to be slower than he expected.

I needed to be more thorough than anyone had ever been with Victor Hale.

I opened my laptop.

I had work to do.

But first, I pulled up Katia’s contact and typed one message.

The meeting with Hale this morning. How did it go?

Not a question. An opening.

Her reply came in forty seconds.

He knew about the Amsterdam node.

Three seconds of looking at those five words.

Then I typed back, ’I know.’ We need to talk. Not today. When we’re back in New York.

Her reply: I’ll be in the office Monday.

On Monday, I sent it back.

I put the phone down.

Monday. Four days. Four days to get ahead of Victor Hale before Katia found out I already had his file and had decided to move without telling her.

That conversation was going to be interesting.

I was not looking forward to it.

But first things first.

I opened the file again and started reading from the beginning.

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