[Jake’s POV]
The drive back to Apex Tower was quiet in the wrong way.
Not peaceful. Not thoughtful. It was the kind of silence people held when everyone knew the first person to speak would make the problem real. Claire sat beside with her tablet open, the glow cutting sharp lines across her face. Ethan sat opposite us, one hand pressed carefully against his ribs, eyes fixed on the city lights sliding past the window. Darius rode in front, still as a locked door.
Sofia’s digital signature had appeared thirty minutes ago.
That should have been impossible.
Sofia Aldridge did not authorize ergency board sessions through loose channels. She hated disorder. She hated rushed signatures. She hated n touching her company without permission even more than she hated being underestimated. Sofia could turn a boardroom into a courtroom with one raised eyebrow and make guilty n thank her for the sentence.
If her signature was real, then she was alive and acting under pressure.
If it was fake, then soone had reached deep enough into Aldridge Enterprises to wear her authority like a mask.
Neither answer was gentle.
Claire broke the silence first. "Nia is isolating the signature path. She says it passed three authentication gates."
"Three?"
"Yes. Legal, executive, and ergency continuity."
Ethan shifted slightly, then winced. "Can that be faked?"
Claire hesitated.
That hesitation said enough.
"It can," she said. "But not by an outsider. Whoever did this either had Sofia’s private keys, or had access to soone who could trigger them."
I looked out the window. "Inside Aldridge."
"Or close enough to her to touch sothing private."
That was worse.
The System appeared.
**[Ding!]**
**[Mission Updated!]**
**Mission: Find Sofia**
**Objective: Verify whether Sofia Aldridge’s ergency signature is genuine.]**
**Reward: Sofia Status Fragnt.]**
**Penalty: Severe if ignored.]**
No joke. No insult. No stupid shoelace comnt.
For once, the System sounded serious.
I almost wished it had mocked .
Ethan leaned forward. "What happens if the board session goes through?"
Claire scrolled with her thumb. "Ergency vote. Temporary restructuring of executive authority until Sofia ’resus full public duties.’ That is the exact phrase."
I laughed once.
It did not sound like .
"Resus full public duties," Ethan repeated. "So they want to admit she is absent without saying she is missing."
Claire nodded. "If the vote passes, control moves to a three-person executive committee."
"Nas," I said.
"Elena Markham. Simon Vale. Lawrence Pike."
Ethan frowned. "We know two."
"Markham from Aldridge legal," Claire said. "Vale from Aether’s dormant account route. Pike is new."
I turned to her. "Who is he?"
"Old Aldridge man. Sixty-four. Corporate governance. Started under Sofia’s father, retired, ca back as a quiet advisor after Sofia took control."
"Loyal?"
Claire’s mouth tightened. "That depends on what he thinks loyalty ans."
The SUV turned into Apex Tower’s private entrance. By the ti the doors opened, Nia was already waiting in the underground lobby with her laptop under one arm and fury written across her face.
"Before you ask," she said, "yes, it’s bad."
"Wonderful greeting."
"You like honesty now."
"Only when it hurts less."
"It won’t."
She turned and walked fast toward the elevator. We followed.
Apex Tower felt different at night. The lobby above might glow with wealth and glass, but the lower levels were all steel, sealed corridors, and access doors that opened only after the building decided it trusted your face. The place had beco less like an office and more like a body learning how to protect its organs.
The operations room was alive when we entered.
Victoria stood at the main screen, jacket off, sleeves rolled, her face sharpened by exhaustion. Evelyn Cross was there too, older, composed, and severe in a charcoal dress that made her look less like a lawyer and more like a verdict wearing expensive shoes. Cassandra sat beside Nia’s station, swallowed by her oversized grey sweater, ssy hair pinned badly with a pencil. Marianne was not there. Good. She had carried enough knives for one night.
Evelyn looked at first. "Sofia’s board session is a trap."
"Good evening to you too."
"It is not good."
"No. But it is evening."
Her eyes narrowed. "Do not get charming with , Jake. I am tired, and Richard Bellamy has been crying in a legal room for four hours."
Ethan lowered himself into a chair. "That sounds healing."
"For ," Evelyn said. "Not for him."
Nia dropped her laptop onto the table and threw the signature chain onto the wall screen. Lines of authentication data spread across the glass in ugly green and red.
"It’s not a normal fake," she said. "That’s the problem. The signature is clean enough to pass, but too clean for Sofia."
Victoria leaned in. "Explain."
"Sofia’s real signatures have habits. Timing delays. Device preferences. She reviews docunts like they personally offended her before she signs. This one moved through three gates in forty-two seconds."
Forty-two seconds.
Sofia once spent twelve minutes arguing with a comma in a rger clause because, according to her, punctuation was how cowards hid liability.
"She did not sign that," I said.
"No," Claire said quietly. "She didn’t."
Cassandra lifted her hand slightly, then lowered it.
I looked at her. "Say it."
She swallowed. "The keys may still be real."
The room quieted.
Cassandra pulled her sleeves over her hands. "Sorry. I an the behavior is wrong, but the authority behind it may not be copied. It looks like soone used a valid key in an invalid way."
"Stolen?" Ethan asked.
"Maybe. Or forced. Or taken from a device Sofia trusted."
Evelyn’s face hardened. "Then Sofia is either detained, compromised, or soone close to her is."
The word detained landed better than missing.
Still ugly.
But better.
Victoria touched the screen, pulling up the three committee nas. "If this ergency vote passes, Isabella gets a clean path into Aldridge Enterprises. Not ownership, not yet, but access. Enough to poison Sofia’s command structure from the inside."
"Not control," I said.
Victoria looked at .
"Access is not control."
"No," she said. "But access is how control begins."
That was true.
I hated true things tonight.
The System flickered.
**[Ding!]**
**[New Mission Generated!]**
**Mission: Stop the Empty Chair Vote**
**Objective: Prevent Aldridge ergency committee from gaining control.]**
**Reward: Sofia Status Fragnt.]**
**Penalty: Aldridge Enterprises loses strategic autonomy.]**
An actual penalty.
No joke attached.
I looked at Pike’s profile on the screen. Gray hair. Heavy face. Old corporate smile. The kind of man who looked like he had been born beside a boardroom table and expected everyone else to ask permission before sitting down.
"Why Pike?" I asked.
Evelyn crossed her arms. "He is old guard. Loyal to the Aldridge na."
"Not Sofia."
"Not necessarily."
That mattered.
Sofia had always understood the danger of legacy n. She used to say they were the worst kind of loyal, because they did not protect people, they protected portraits on walls. They would betray a living woman to preserve a dead man’s version of a company and still sleep well afterward, convinced they had saved the family na.
I rembered her saying that in her office one night, standing barefoot by the window with a glass of wine in her hand, her hair loose over one shoulder. She had looked less like the untouchable Sofia Aldridge then, and more like a woman tired of carrying a dynasty built by n who never expected her to inherit it.
Pike belonged to that world.
If Isabella had reached him, she would not need to buy him.
She would only need to whisper that Sofia was no longer fit to protect the Aldridge na.
"Where is he?" I asked.
Nia answered, "Brooklyn Heights. No movent tonight. But his calendar shows breakfast tomorrow at the rcer Hotel."
"With?"
"Elena Markham."
Ethan groaned. "Of course."
Claire leaned closer to the table. "If we get to Pike before Markham, maybe we shake him loose."
Evelyn shook her head. "Maybe. But that does not stop the vote by itself. We need evidence of fraud, Sofia herself, or a verified counter-signature."
"When is the session?"
"Forty-eight hours," Claire said.
Nia laughed without humor. "Because apparently sleep is for people with smaller enemies."
Silence followed.
No one wanted to say what ca next.
Finding Sofia ant stepping toward the place Isabella clearly wanted to look. Not finding her ant letting soone use her na to steal her company while we argued about procedure.
A trap did not stop being a trap because the bait mattered.
It just beca harder to walk away.
Victoria studied across the table. "You are not going alone."
"I know."
That surprised her.
It surprised too.
Claire’s eyes flicked toward mine, cautious now.
I leaned both hands on the table and looked at the three nas again. "We split the problem. Nia and Cassandra trace the key. Evelyn prepares the filings. Victoria locks Vanguard exposure. Claire builds the Pike approach. Ethan rests."
Ethan sat up. "Excuse ?"
"You heard ."
"I am part of the team."
"You are part of the injured section."
"I object."
"Denied."
Evelyn glanced at him. "For once, I agree with Jake."
Ethan looked betrayed. "That’s how I know things are bad."
Darius spoke from the door. "I go with Jake."
I nodded.
No argunt.
So nights taught humility faster than others.
Nia stared at . "Did you just accept protection without being threatened?"
"I am growing."
My left shoelace untied itself.
Everyone looked down.
For one long second, nobody spoke.
Then Ethan whispered, "Again?"
I closed my eyes.
Claire turned away, but not fast enough to hide the smile.
Nia pointed at the shoe. "I want that in the dical report."
"It is a lace."
"It is a symptom."
"It is footwear betrayal."
Cassandra made a tiny sound that might have been laughter. Evelyn looked between us like she was deciding whether she had walked into a legal strategy eting or a circus with better funding.
Victoria rubbed her forehead. "Focus."
Right.
Sofia.
The room settled again.
Claire enlarged Pike’s profile. "Breakfast at eight. rcer Hotel. Public enough to avoid violence, private enough for pressure. We approach before Markham arrives."
"Not we," I said.
Claire looked at .
"You and Evelyn prep the legal angle. I talk to Pike."
"Jake."
"He is old guard. If lawyers and security corner him, he hides behind procedure. If I talk to him like a younger man asking about legacy, he may try to teach sothing."
Evelyn studied . "That is annoyingly plausible."
"I cherish your praise."
"Do not."
Nia’s screen pinged.
Her expression changed.
"What?" I asked.
She turned slowly toward us. "The fake signature pinged a device archive."
"Where?"
"Old Aldridge private residence. Not the main estate. Smaller property outside the city."
Claire frowned. "Sofia’s father’s hunting lodge?"
Nia nodded. "Inactive for years."
The room went cold.
Victoria’s voice lowered. "Why would the key ping there?"
Cassandra answered softly. "Because sothing woke up."
Nia pulled the map onto the wall.
Aldridge Lodge.
Two hours outside the city.
Empty, supposedly.
I straightened.
"Darius."
He was already moving.
Claire grabbed my arm before I could turn.
Her grip was tight.
"You said split the problem."
"We are."
"You said you would not go alone."
"I won’t."
Her eyes searched mine.
There was fear there. Anger too. And sothing worse than both, the mory of waiting two years for a man who kept walking into traps and calling it necessity.
I covered her hand with mine for one second.
"I’ll co back," I said.
She did not let go.
"You always say that like it is a plan."
This ti, I had no clever answer.
The System appeared one last ti.
**[Mission Objective Updated!]**
**Objective: Investigate Aldridge Lodge.]**
**Reward: Sofia Status Fragnt.]**
**Warning: High-risk location.]**
I looked at the map.
Sowhere out there, a dead house had just opened its eyes.
And Sofia’s na was inside.
I don’t r
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