Chapter 15 - The Gathering Storm
The tranquility of our new life was shattered the following Tuesday when Marcus intercepted a digital breach in our corporate network. Someone was attempting to siphon millions from the foundation accounts, not through typical cyber-hacking, but via an internal override code that only a seated board member possessed. However, all of Eleanor’s loyalists had been purged. That meant there was a mole—a hidden player within our inner circle. I called an emergency board meeting for midnight, utilizing the secure conference room on the lower subterranean level of our skyscraper, shielded from electronic surveillance. As the senior executives filed in—all wearing polite, practiced masks of corporate loyalty—I scanned their faces, searching for the micro-expressions of betrayal. "We have a leak," I announced, my voice cutting through the ambient hum of the ventilation system like a razor. "Someone in this room is feeding our financial telemetry to an external entity known only as the 'Vanguard Syndicate'." A murmur of feigned shock rippled through the mahogany table. But then I noticed it: Thomas, our chief financial officer and a man who had served the family for over twenty years, was sweating profusely, his fingers tapping an irregular, nervous rhythm against his leather portfolio. Before he could stand to object, the overhead lights flickered violently and died, plunging the windowless room into absolute, pitch-black darkness.
