Chapter 163

[ 1,047 words ]

Katia’s POV

The alert came at eleven forty-seven PM.

I was still at my desk when Sam’s message landed, three words that told me everything I needed to know before I had even read the details.

We have a problem.

I called her immediately.

“Client-facing systems,” she said. “Someone is in. Not deep; they are not in the core architecture, not in the AI layer, and not in the government contract data. They hit the client portal. Deliberately limited.” She paused. “This is not someone who couldn’t get further in. This is someone who chose not to p>

“Victor,” I said.

“Halo fingerprints on the entry point,” she said. “Nothing provable — routed through four jurisdictions, two of them the same shells we traced on the bounty. But the methodology is consistent.” Another pause. “He’s showing us he can get in, Kat. That’s all this is p>

I was already standing, already moving toward the door. “Where are you p>

“Server room. I have Chen and the analysts here. We started containment eight minutes ago p>

“I’m on my way p>

I worked through the night.

Sam’s security operation ran clean and fast—she had restructured it completely after her promotion to CSO, and the three ex-intelligence analysts she had brought in after the planted article knew exactly what they were doing. Chen handled the entry point isolation while the other two traced the attack vector back through its routing layers. Sam coordinated everything from the centre of the room with the calm of someone who had been prepared for exactly this moment.

I made coffee at two AM and handed it out and rolled my sleeves up and stayed.

By four the breach was fully contained. By five thirty, we had a complete picture of what had been accessed — client portal metadata, login timestamps, nothing sensitive, nothing structural. Victor had walked into the lobby of IG Technologies and looked around and walked back out. He had not taken anything because taking was not the point.

The point was to make us know he had been there.

At six AM I stood in the server room with the last of the night’s coffee and looked at my team — all of them tired, all of them still sharp — and said: “He wants us to react. We don’t. We document everything, we build the legal file, and we go to work tomorrow like nothing happened p>

Nobody argued.

“Sam,” I said.

“Already building the file,” she said without looking up.

I went to wash my face.

At seven AM I called Julian’s operations director.

Not Julian, his operations director. Because the WEG-IG integration meant our systems had touchpoints and I needed to know those touchpoints were clean before the business day started. James ran the check in twenty minutes and confirmed the WEG side was untouched. Victor had not gone near the Windsor infrastructure.

Of course he hadn’t. WEG was not his target. I was.

I was writing up the incident summary for the board when Julian called at eight.

“I heard,” he said.

“Your operations director is thorough,” I said.

“He is.” He paused like someone considering asking more questions. “How bad p>

“Surface level. Client portal metadata. Nothing that matters structurally.” I leant back in my chair. “It was a message, not an attack. He wanted me to know he could get in p>

“Because you didn’t respond to the alliance proposal,” Julian said.

“Because I asked for seventy-two hours and then went quiet,” I said. “This is his version of a follow-up email p>

Julian was quiet for a moment. The particular quiet he had when he was thinking something through before he said it.

“I want to come in,” he said.

“To IG p>

“To your server room. Your architecture.” I opened my mouth to object but then let him finish. “I have been building WEG’s security infrastructure for twelve years. I know what Victor looks for, and I know how he gets in because he used the same methodology on us four years ago.” He paused. “I can help harden your perimeter. Not my team — me. Personally p>

I looked at the server room through the glass wall of my office. Sam was still at her station. Chen was running a secondary sweep.

“I have Sam,” I said. “I have the analysts p>

“I know you do,” he said. “And they are good. Sam is extraordinary. But I have something they don’t have. I have Victor’s methodology mapped from four years of watching him work. I know where he goes next p>

I thought about that.

I thought about Victor sitting across from me at that Tribeca dinner, his hand on mine, telling me the Meridian story with the patient confidence of a man who had been building toward something for a very long time. I thought about the cyberattack last night — careful, limited, surgical. A demonstration, not a strike.

He was not finished. This was not the end of something. It was the beginning of the next phase.

“When?” I said.

“Today,” Julian said. “Now, if you’ll have me p>

I looked at my office. At the incident summary, half-written on my screen. The coffee cup from two AM still on the corner of the desk.

“Give me two hours,” I said. “I need to brief the board and send the client notification p>

“Two hours,” he agreed.

I put the phone down.

Sam appeared in my doorway thirty seconds later. She had the expression she wore when she had been listening through the glass and had opinions about what she had heard.

“He’s coming here,” she said.

“Yes p>

“To our server room p>

“Yes, Sam p>

She looked at me for a moment. “Victor hit us the night after the seventy-two-hour window closed. Julian called at eight AM. He’s offering to come in personally.” She tilted her head. “That’s either very convenient timing or it’s exactly what it looks like p>

“What does it look like?” I said.

“A man who was already paying attention,” she said. “And who has been waiting for a reason to show up p>

I picked up my pen.

“Send the board notification,” I said. “And tell reception Julian Windsor will be arriving in two hours p>

Sam almost smiled.

“Already done,” she said. “Should I also prepare condoms p>

“Sam!” She walked out.

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