The next morning, Lancaster Global’s executive floor buzzed with unease. Whispers circulated like smoke, curling under doors and slipping through encrypted emails. Everyone had seen the footage of Ethan’s downfall, but now, the silence that followed felt more threatening than the chaos.

Steve entered the war room a private suite designed for emergency strategy sessions with a storm behind his eyes.

Jason, head of cybersecurity, stood beside a monitor. “We traced the anonymous email to a relay server in Germany, but the digital trail goes cold there.”

Sandra, already seated, tapped her pen against her tablet. “So, someone professional. Possibly with internal access.”

Jason nodded, hesitant. “That’s the theory. But it gets worse.” He tapped a few keys, and a string of code filled the wall screen. “This encryption signature matches a dormant backdoor built into our old firewall code we phased out two years ago. Someone reactivated it last week.”

Steve leaned in. “That’s internal. And whoever did it used legacy credentials.”

Sandra’s eyes narrowed. “Who had access to that level of security and enough knowledge to hide it?”

Jason hesitated, then said quietly, “Six people. Myself included. The others… I’ve begun quietly auditing their digital fingerprints.”

Steve’s gaze hardened. “We find this person before they hit us again. Quietly. No alarm bells. They want to rattle us. Let’s not give them the satisfaction.”

Jason nodded and left to begin the audit.

As the door closed, Sandra exhaled slowly. “This isn’t over.”

“No,” Steve said. “It’s just beginning.”

By midday, Sandra was back in her office, pouring over access logs from the past six months. The patterns were subtle—but then, good sabotage always was.

She caught a duplicate login from two different IPs under the same name: Nate Ashford, junior data analyst. Not a top-tier security employee, but connected to several classified reports during the Ethan investigation.

Her instincts flared.

Sandra walked down to the analytics floor.

The moment she entered, Nate looked up from his desk too quickly, his posture stiff. “Ms. Vega. Can I help you?”

She smiled casually. “Just checking on some cross-referenced data from the Draven files. I noticed your ID tagged a few of the encrypted reports?”

He blinked. “Uh yeah, I had to reroute some analytics during the investigation. Nothing big.”

She tilted her head. “Mind showing me?”

There was a flicker a beat too long before he replied, “Sure. Just let me…”

But when he reached for his keyboard, his hand veered slightly toward the power button.

Sandra stepped in. “Don’t.”

Nate froze.

Her voice lowered. “Whatever you’re hiding, I already have access logs. If you shut that system down, you’re only confirming guilt.”

He swallowed hard.

Moments later, Steve and security arrived.

Within thirty minutes, Nate was in custody, his laptop confiscated and the full extent of his espionage uncovered.

He hadn’t been working for Ethan.

He’d been working for someone else.

That evening, Steve and Sandra stood in the dim light of Steve’s private office, files spread across the desk.

“He was passing data to an offshore shell company,” Steve said. “They were funding a media group quietly publishing anti-Lancaster stories. But he wouldn’t say who they work for.”

Sandra picked up one of the printed emails. “He wasn’t the mastermind. Just the leak.”

Steve looked at her. “You were right to suspect him. You saw what I didn’t.”

She stepped closer. “We see better together.”

He smiled faintly. “That should scare them.”

Their phones buzzed at the same time.

Same sender.

Unknown.

Same message:

> “Cute move. But there are more rats in your house. Be careful who you kiss goodnight.”

Steve looked at her. “They’re watching us again.”

Sandra’s breath hitched. “We need to strike first.”

Steve’s hand closed over hers. “No more shadows. Let’s drag every single one into the light.”