2025-10-24 21:49:48
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Chapter 8: Cracks in the Circle
The boardroom confrontation still hung in the air long after the doors had closed. Malik could feel it clinging to him as he stood alone in his office, the smell of paper, coffee, and unease.Outside, Atlanta’s sunset bled red across the glass, turning the skyline into a bruise. Elena slipped inside, closing the door softly behind her.“Half the board’s already whispering,” she said. “Kent’s people are promising stability. That word travels fast.”Malik didn’t turn. “Fear always does.”“He’s buying trust, Malik. You can’t fight that with silence.”He faced her. “Silence isn’t surrender. It’s calculation.”Her gaze searched his. “And what are you calculating, revenge or survival?”He didn’t answer. She sighed, crossing to the window. “When I signed on, you talked about rebuilding, not destroying.”“Sometimes rebuilding starts with demolition.”“Not of people,” she said quietly. “You’re not him.”Malik’s jaw tightened. “That’s exactly why I’ll win.”The door opened again. Raymond Willis
Chapter 7: The Ghost at His Door
The rain had stopped, but the city hadn’t quieted. Atlanta shimmered under a dull sky, streets still slick, traffic pulsing like a heartbeat beneath the towers.Malik stood by the window of his office, jacket slung over the back of a chair, sleeves rolled. The meeting with the board loomed in less than an hour, yet he couldn’t focus on financial reports.His mind kept returning to one name, Kent, and to the feeling that every step forward was already being watched. A soft knock broke through his thoughts. “Come in,” he said.The door opened halfway. For a heartbeat, the world seemed to tilt. “Tasha.”She stepped inside, hesitating in the threshold like she wasn’t sure if she belonged. A long coat clung to her shoulders; her hair, shorter now, framed a face that carried more weariness than he remembered.“I know I shouldn’t be here,” she began. “But I had to see you.”Malik said nothing. He motioned toward the chair opposite his desk. She didn’t sit.“I found something,” she said. “Abo
Chapter 6 - The trap
The hum of the servers was the only sound left in the room. Malik stood in the cold glow of the screens, the backup drive in his hand like a live wire. “Start with a sandbox,” he said. “Nothing connects to the main network until I say.”Elena nodded and began isolating the drives. “You’re really going to bait him?”“He wants to watch me bleed,” Malik replied. “Let’s give him a show.”He slid the flash drive into a quarantined terminal. A cascade of data filled the screen, numbers, ports, pings, each one a trail waiting to be followed.Malik’s fingers moved quickly, weaving a false path: a phantom account under his own name, packed with fabricated financial records and a dummy password file.Elena watched. “You just made yourself the world’s most interesting target.”“Exactly.” He leaned back. “Every hunter follows the easiest scent. Once he takes the bait, we’ll trace the callback route.”They waited. The air in the room felt charged, electric.At 3:17 p.m., a ping. Then another. The
Chapter 5 - Pay Day
The morning came sharp and colourless. Atlanta’s heat hadn’t settled in yet, but the air already felt heavy, like something waiting to break.Malik stood by the window of his office, phone in hand, watching clouds roll in over the skyline. Elena entered without knocking. Her face told him everything. “Something’s wrong,” she said.“How bad?”“Bad enough that the finance department called twice before eight. Two of our biggest contracts, WestRail and MidSouth Freight, pulled out overnight.Their lawyers say the funding came from fraudulent accounts.” Malik turned slowly. “That’s impossible. We vetted every line.”“Not according to them,” she said, laying a tablet on the desk. “Look. The deposits are gone, every cent rerouted through a Cayman subsidiary before dawn.”He scanned the screen. The code names were familiar, too familiar: Wilcrest, Savoy, and a new one, Kestrel Limited. A cold clarity settled over him. “Kent,” he said.Elena frowned. “He’s already hitting back?”“He warned me
Chapter 4 - War within
Atlanta had a habit of mirroring Malik’s moods. The clouds hung low over the skyline as he sat alone in his suite, laptop open, numbers cascading down the screen like confessions.Phoenix Freight’s analysts had sent over Moore Logistics’ full fiscal reports. On paper, the company was struggling, but not dying. Someone was feeding it life support. Quietly.He zoomed in on a set of ledgers from three years back. The numbers didn’t add up. Two accounts kept reappearing: Wilcrest Holdings and Savoy Finance Group, both offshore, both masked through shell companies.Elena stepped in, coffee in hand. “You’ve been staring at those numbers all morning.”“They’re lying,” he said.“Numbers don’t lie, Malik. People do.”He looked up. “Exactly.”She set the coffee down and leaned over the desk. “You think Derrick’s been laundering money?”“Not just laundering,” Malik murmured. “Covering for someone. Look here, every time their profits dipped, a private deposit refilled their accounts. Always from
Chapter 3B – Man in The Mirror
The suite was dim when Malik returned. Atlanta’s skyline poured through the window, all glass and temptation.Elena sat on the sofa, tablet open, numbers glowing across the screen. “They’ll call by morning,” she said without looking up. “They want the deal badly.”Malik loosened his tie. “Good. The more desperate they are, the clearer their tells.”“You think she suspects?”“She felt something.” He poured a glass of water, watching the ripples tremble. “Recognition isn’t proof. Not yet.”Elena closed the tablet. “And when it becomes proof?”He took a slow drink. “Then the game changes.”She leaned back, studying him. “You’ve built a whole empire just to walk into that room. Don’t let it own you.”“It won’t.” He set down the glass. “I already lost everything once. That’s how I learned what not to worship.”Across town, Tasha Moore sat in her office long after everyone else had gone home. The building was quiet, humming faintly with the sound of air vents and regret.She stared at the r
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