All Chapters of The Heir Behind Bars: Chapter 171
- Chapter 180
263 chapters
Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-One
Cassandra joined him, her hair tied back, a small folder in her hand. “We finished the trace,” she said.Nathan turned. “And?”“It’s bad,” she said quietly. “The leak came from inside — the Zurich communications branch. We identified the account. One of the mid-level managers. But…” She hesitated. “The account was registered under someone else’s credentials. Someone higher.”Nathan’s expression darkened. “How high?”“Board level.”He looked at her for a long moment. “Liam’s fingerprints?”Cassandra nodded slowly. “He’s feeding someone. Money, blackmail, something personal — I don’t know yet. But this isn’t just a hacker war anymore. He’s found a way back into the boardroom.”Nathan stepped back inside, setting down his coffee untouched. “Then we root him out. Quietly. If I expose the traitor too early, Liam will pivot again. This time we trap him before he can move.”Cassandra followed him to the table. “We’re already running silent surveillance across all internal networks. Hayes sec
Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Two
Behind closed doors, celebration had already turned to unease. The encrypted message Liam left behind — that single, cryptic line — refused to leave Nathan’s mind. The real secret was never mine to hide.He sat in the dim light of the study, the message hovering on the screen, a faint pulse of data glowing like a heartbeat. Cassandra stood behind him, arms folded, her expression tight.“We’ve been through the archives twice,” she said. “Nothing connects this code to any modern system. It’s too old — probably from your father’s first iteration of the company.”Nathan didn’t look up. “The signature hash matches the Hayes Innovations lab that was shut down in 2004. The one that tested neural-link protocols.”Cassandra frowned. “The human integration project? That was abandoned.”“Officially,” Nathan said. “But my father never abandoned anything. He just buried what scared him.”He opened another window, running a decryption algorithm. The message fragmented, then reassembled into a serie
Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Three
“Traffic analytics from the Brussels server just spiked again,” Cassandra murmured. “Triple the normal load. Same irregular patterns we saw before Liam’s first attack.”Nathan’s jaw tightened. “He’s trying again.”Mr. Hayes stepped into the room, still dressed in his evening robe, his age showing in the lines around his eyes but his mind sharp as ever. “If Liam’s involved, he’s not doing it alone this time. That pattern—it’s distributed, decentralized. Whoever’s funding him has serious infrastructure.”Nathan turned toward the glowing map, where red dots blinked across France, Germany, and Italy. “We’re not just fighting a rogue son anymore,” he said quietly. “We’re up against a network.”Down in the control center beneath the mansion, technicians worked feverishly, the air alive with the clicking of keyboards and low murmurs. Cassandra descended the glass staircase, her heels clicking in rhythm with the rising tension. She paused beside Oliver, the head of Nathan’s cybersecurity team
Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Four
Rain still fell softly over the Hayes estate, washing away the charred remnants of the night before. Smoke lingered faintly in the air, the once-manicured courtyard now a battlefield of shattered glass and scorched stone. Security drones hovered above the perimeter, scanning for residual threats.Inside, the mansion had fallen into uneasy silence. Nathan sat in the study, a bandage across his forehead, his suit replaced by a simple black shirt. Cassandra stood by the window, watching the rain. Every flash of lightning reminded her of the explosion—of the sound of Nathan’s body hitting the ground to shield Liam’s.She turned. “You should be resting.”“I’ll rest when this is done,” Nathan replied, his voice calm but gravel-edged. “The attack wasn’t random. Someone gave him access to high-grade explosives and those SUVs. He couldn’t have financed that on his own.”Mr. Hayes entered, cane tapping lightly against the marble floor. “You’re right,” he said. “Finance traced the money trail. I
Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Five
The world moved quickly after the collapse of Dane Consortium.By the end of the week, headlines flooded every global network—“Hayes Telecom Claims Historic Victory,” “Nathan Hayes Expands Global Holdings,” “Corporate Titan Redefines Digital Power.”But in the Hayes mansion, the air was thick with something quieter—anticipation. The war with Morgan Dane had been won in numbers, but Nathan knew victory wasn’t the same as safety. Every empire had its shadow, and Liam’s ghost still haunted the circuits of his servers.He stood in the command room again, the glass wall reflecting rows of data screens that pulsed like veins. Cassandra entered behind him, her steps measured, her hair pulled back sharply.“Phase Zero remnants resurfaced in the Zurich node,” she said. “Our analysts found fragments of the neural code nested inside a government data vault.”Nathan turned slowly. “So it’s still alive.”“Barely,” she replied. “It’s copying small strings of its own framework. Like a creature refus
Chapter One hundred and seventy six
Nathan leaned back in the black leather chair in his study, the faint hum of the servers beneath the mansion filling the silence. The air was heavy with the scent of coffee and tension. It had been a week since the global partnership signing—Hayes Telecom’s strongest expansion yet—but Nathan couldn’t ignore the creeping sense that calm never lasted too long in his world.Cassandra entered without knocking, holding a tablet close to her chest. “You’re not going to like this,” she said.He looked up sharply. “What is it?”“Liam resurfaced.”Nathan’s grip on the armrest tightened. “Where?”“Berlin,” she said. “He’s been meeting with a private data firm that specializes in security breaches. Small-time group, but their work’s dangerous. They could destabilize entire systems if paid well enough.”Nathan stood, his reflection in the dark window sharp and cold. “He never learns,” he muttered. “Every time he crawls back from failure, he aims lower but hits harder.”Cassandra placed the tablet
Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Seven
Nathan watched the live feed from Hayes Tower as the fog thickened over the Geneva satellite hub. Every movement of Liam’s team was tracked, mapped, and anticipated, but Nathan knew that anticipation alone wasn’t enough. Liam had become unpredictable, a living chaos intertwined with the remnants of Phase Zero.Cassandra stood beside him, her tablet filled with streaming data. “They’re trying to bypass the perimeter sensors,” she said. “Using electromagnetic pulse disruptors. It’s subtle, but effective.”Nathan’s jaw tightened. “Then we neutralize it before it reaches the hub. Activate countermeasures.”Far below, on the cold tarmac, Liam’s team moved with practiced precision. He had learned from every previous failure. Each operative carried sleek, custom devices designed to manipulate security protocols, some even capable of mimicking Hayes Telecom credentials. Liam himself was at the center, his eyes scanning the horizon, calculating the distance to the control room inside the hub.
Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Eight
Nathan paced the dimly lit command room of Hayes Tower, the glow from the bank of monitors reflecting off his sharp features. Every red dot on the global network map, every anomaly flagged by his security systems, told him one thing: Liam was not finished. Even in apparent defeat, the adopted brother’s obsession pulsed like a heartbeat, faint but relentless.Cassandra sat beside him, reviewing intercepted communications from European networks. “He’s testing our limits,” she said, tapping through lines of encrypted code. “Small breaches, mostly harmless, but deliberate. He wants to see how fast we can respond.”Nathan’s hands clenched into fists. “He’s probing for weaknesses. Looking for a single point where Hayes Telecom can be destabilized. But I’ve anticipated this. Every route, every system, every server he touches is accounted for. He can’t surprise us anymore.”Cassandra shook her head. “Don’t underestimate him. He’s desperate, yes, but desperation makes him creative. He’s evolvi
Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Nine
The morning light filtered through the glass walls of Hayes Tower, but Nathan felt no warmth. He sat at the command console, eyes fixed on the live network map that sprawled across multiple screens. Cassandra moved behind him, adjusting displays and feeding real-time intelligence from European and Asian nodes.“We’ve got movement in Prague,” she said, voice tight with tension. “Not a full strike yet, but someone is probing the local exchanges. He’s testing again.”Nathan’s hands hovered over the keyboard. “He’s still trying to find the weak point,” he muttered. “We’ve contained every attempt, but the patterns are becoming more sophisticated. He’s learning from our countermeasures.”Cassandra glanced at him. “Every time we block him, he adapts. This isn’t just digital warfare anymore—it’s psychological. He’s trying to make us overreact, make mistakes.”Nathan leaned back briefly, rubbing his temples. “Then we don’t react. We anticipate. We don’t chase the distractions. We reinforce the
Chapter One Hundred and Eighty
The morning fog over London was thick, dulling the brilliance of Hayes Tower, but inside, the energy was electric. Nathan moved briskly through the command center, his eyes scanning screens filled with live feeds, system alerts, and simulated projections. The city beneath him slept peacefully, oblivious to the invisible war waged above their heads.Cassandra approached, holding a tablet bristling with new data. “We’ve analyzed the anomalies from Prague and Zurich. They’re still probing, but the attacks are more sophisticated—adaptive scripts, randomized patterns, attempts to bypass decoy networks.”Nathan didn’t look up. “Then it’s time to escalate our strategy. Defensive measures alone won’t stop him. We need to force him into predictable behavior and limit the scope of his actions.”He activated a holographic map of the European network nodes, highlighting every hub Phase Zero had touched in the past seventy-two hours. “We’ll create controlled exposure points,” he explained. “He thi