The man behind the war
1323 Words
Chapter 4 — The Man Behind the War
Ava Bennett had always believed that trust was earned.
Alexander Cole was making her question everything she believed.
She stood in the glass conference room at LunaMatch headquarters, staring at the city below while the memory of his hand wrapped around hers refused to leave her mind.
I trust you.
Three words.
They shouldn't have mattered.
Yet they did.
Her phone buzzed.
Alexander: Conference room. Five minutes.
Ava frowned.
Ava: You know you have a phone too, right? You could have called.
His reply came almost immediately.
Alexander: Then I wouldn't get to annoy you in person.
Despite herself, she smiled.
That was dangerous.
Very dangerous.
She locked her phone and headed toward the conference room.
Alexander was already there.
He stood beside the large screen, sleeves rolled to his elbows, his tie missing, dark hair slightly messy. He looked less like the ruthless billionaire the media loved to photograph and more like an exhausted man who hadn't slept.
Ava stopped at the door.
"Did you sleep at all?"
He looked up.
"Did you?"
"No."
"Then we're even."
She walked inside.
On the screen was the information from the mysterious flash drive.
Ava's expression hardened.
"You opened it?"
"Not directly."
She raised an eyebrow.
Alexander pointed toward a laptop.
"I had my cybersecurity team isolate it. It's encrypted."
"And?"
"And whoever created it knew exactly what they were doing."
Ava pulled out a chair.
"Can we break the encryption?"
"Probably."
"How long?"
Alexander looked at her.
"That's the problem."
"What?"
"It doesn't want to be broken."
Ava stared at him.
"What does that even mean?"
He sat beside her.
"The encryption isn't protecting information. It's protecting a trap."
A cold feeling moved through her stomach.
Alexander continued.
"If we try to force it open, it could automatically upload everything on the drive to an external server."
Ava's eyes widened.
"And we'd expose our systems."
"Exactly."
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Someone had gone to extraordinary lengths to manipulate them.
Someone who knew technology.
Someone who knew their companies.
Someone who knew them.
Ava leaned closer to the screen.
"Then how do we access it?"
Alexander's eyes met hers.
"We don't."
She frowned.
"We find whoever sent it."
Ava nodded slowly.
"And we start with Daniel."
---
Daniel Mercer looked terrified when they brought him into the conference room.
"I already told you everything I know."
Ava gestured toward the chair.
"Sit down, Daniel."
He obeyed.
Alexander remained standing.
Ava noticed Daniel kept glancing at him.
"You said someone from Veyra gave you a software patch."
"Yes."
"What did he look like?"
Daniel swallowed.
"Average height. Dark hair. Maybe early thirties."
"Anything else?"
"He wore a Veyra employee badge."
Alexander's jaw tightened.
"Did you see the name?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I wasn't thinking about it."
Alexander stepped closer.
"Daniel, someone used your credentials to access our joint server. A fake Veyra employee gave you a patch. That patch may have created the vulnerability."
Daniel looked down.
"I know."
Ava noticed something.
"You've been blaming yourself."
Daniel looked up.
"I should have checked the patch."
"That doesn't mean you caused this."
His eyes moved between them.
"You really believe that?"
Ava answered immediately.
"Yes."
Alexander looked at her.
There was something in his expression she couldn't read.
Respect, perhaps.
Or something warmer.
Daniel hesitated before reaching into his pocket.
"I kept something."
He placed a small piece of paper on the table.
Ava picked it up.
It was a handwritten sequence of numbers.
"What is this?"
"The man who gave me the patch wrote it down."
Alexander took the paper.
"Did he say what it was?"
"No."
Alexander stared at the numbers.
Ava watched his expression change.
"What?"
He didn't answer.
"Alexander."
He looked at her.
"I've seen this before."
"Where?"
"Two years ago."
The room went silent.
Ava's heart began beating faster.
"Two years ago?"
He nodded.
"Before LunaMatch and Veyra started suing each other."
Ava stood.
"What are you saying?"
Alexander looked at Daniel.
"Leave us."
Daniel didn't move.
"Now," Alexander said.
Daniel quickly left.
The door closed.
Ava turned toward Alexander.
"What happened two years ago?"
He stared at the paper.
"That's the question I've been asking myself."
"You knew this number?"
"Not the exact sequence."
"Then what do you know?"
Alexander walked toward the window.
"When Veyra's first major security breach happened, we found a similar sequence hidden inside our server logs."
Ava's eyes widened.
"You never told me."
"I didn't know it mattered."
"You accused LunaMatch of stealing your technology."
"So did you."
"Because your evidence pointed at us!"
"And your evidence pointed at us."
Ava stopped.
They looked at each other.
For the first time, the anger between them felt different.
Not personal.
Not anymore.
Someone had been feeding them evidence.
Someone had been pushing them toward each other like two weapons aimed at the same target.
Ava whispered, "What if neither of us started the war?"
Alexander's expression darkened.
"Then someone did."
"And they wanted us fighting."
"Exactly."
Ava walked toward him.
"Why?"
"I don't know."
She stared into his eyes.
"But we're going to find out."
Alexander nodded.
"We are."
For a moment, they stood silently.
Too close.
Again.
Ava could smell his cologne.
Warm. Subtle. Distracting.
She looked away first.
"We need to investigate the original breach."
"I already started."
Her eyes snapped back to him.
"When?"
"Last night."
"You didn't sleep because of this?"
"I didn't sleep because of several things."
She swallowed.
"Such as?"
Alexander looked at her.
"You."
Ava froze.
"What?"
He stepped closer.
"You asked me what I was thinking last night."
"I don't remember asking."
"You did."
"And?"
"I was thinking about what would happen if you weren't my enemy."
Her heart stumbled.
"Alexander..."
"I know."
He stopped.
His expression softened.
"I know this is complicated."
"You are my biggest competitor."
"I know."
"I've spent two years hating you."
"I know."
"You've made my life miserable."
A faint smile touched his lips.
"You've made mine miserable too."
"Then why are you looking at me like that?"
His smile disappeared.
"Because I'm starting to think I was wrong about you."
Ava's breath caught.
Before she could respond, the conference room door burst open.
Maya rushed inside.
"Ava!"
Ava stepped away from Alexander.
"What happened?"
Maya held up her phone.
"We have a problem."
Alexander's expression immediately changed.
"What kind?"
Maya turned the phone toward them.
A news alert filled the screen.
LUNAMATCH AND VEYRA CHARITY PROJECT ACCUSED OF DATA BREACH
Ava's stomach dropped.
"What?"
Maya scrolled.
"Someone leaked documents claiming your joint project has been harvesting private user information."
Alexander took the phone.
"That's impossible."
"I know."
Ava grabbed it.
The article contained screenshots of internal files.
Some of them were real.
Some weren't.
But whoever created them knew enough to make the story believable.
Her phone began vibrating.
Then Alexander's.
Then Maya's.
Notifications poured in.
Investors.
Board members.
Journalists.
Customers.
Everyone wanted answers.
Ava looked at Alexander.
"Someone just declared war."
He looked back at her.
"No."
His voice was calm.
"Someone just made a mistake."
Ava frowned.
"What mistake?"
Alexander held up the phone.
"The leak included metadata."
Her eyes narrowed.
"What does that mean?"
"It means whoever created these documents left a digital fingerprint."
Ava stared at him.
"Can we trace it?"
Alexander smiled coldly.
"Now we can."
Maya looked between them.
"So what's the plan?"
Ava glanced at Alexander.
He didn't hesitate.
"We stop fighting each other."
Ava nodded.
"And find the person who started this."
Alexander extended his hand.
Ava looked at it.
Then she took it.
This time, neither of them let go.
But neither noticed the small red light blinking inside the conference room's ceiling sensor.
Someone was watching.
Someone was listening.
And on a laptop somewhere across the city, a message appeared:
THEY'RE WORKING TOGETHER.
A reply came seconds later.
THEN IT'S TIME TO SEPARATE THEM.
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