The Hidden Empire of Harvey Kane

Chapter 002: The Choice

James turned back to Harvey, his face set in the same cold mask he always wore when addressing the man his daughter loved.

"Go upstairs," he ordered, voice low and absolute. "Sit there, and do not move an inch. Do not call her, and do not even entertain the thoughts of leaving this house until the matter at the company is resolved."

He spoke in the manner a man speaks to someone who had never and would never raise his voice in return.

For an entire year Harvey had absorbed every insult, every dismissive glance, and every public reminder that he was the much lesser partner in the marriage. He had never snapped or pushed back. Not even once.

James had grown used to Harvey's silent and puppet-like treatment. He expected it now like the way he expected the sun to rise every morning.

But today was different.

Harvey knew with very striking clarity that Harvax Inc. would collapse if he stayed back in the house.

With every digital system and artery severed and corrupted, the company would lose billions of dollars belonging to its wealthy investors, and Jane could even be arrested and made to pay up for the rest of her life.

No. He needed to move. He promised he'd do anything for her. It hadn't been a bluff.

"You deaf all of a sudden?" Kyle blurted. "My father just gave you a clear instruction. Are you so daft?"

Harvey ignored the younger man, his eyes fixed on James for a long second. Then he sighed and stepped forward, putting a hand on the older man's shoulder and firmly shifting him aside.

"Leave my way, Mr. James."

The room froze.

James' mouth opened, empty of sound. Eleanor's hand flew to her throat, and Kyle's face flushed dark with sudden rage.

"Oh you piece of trash–" Kyle started to say as he lunged at Harvey.

Harvey turned without effort, catching both the younger man's wrists. Then he shoved, the force clean and controlled.

Kyle hit the floor with a heavy thud that rattled the centre table.

Eleanor's scream tore through the entire room. "That's it! We're calling the cops right now! You animal–"

Harvey was already moving, crossing the threshold and stepping into the morning's air. Then he slid behind the wheel of his car, the door shutting with a solid click.

The engine turned over, and he pulled away from the curb while Eleanor's voice still rose behind him.

Traffic thickened almost at once, but he kept his hands steady on the wheel.

"Why Saturday?" he muttered to himself as he reached the first major intersection.

He had formulated great plans of taking Jane shopping and spending quality time with her day. But her family and the perpetrators of the cyberattack had different plans.

His phone rang just then. He glanced at it to see it was Henry–his closest friend and partner in the cybersecurity world. They'd both secretly worked together in stopping all the previous cyberattacks on Harvax Inc.

Harvey answered on the second ring.

"It's rolling again," Henry said, the familiar rasp of his voice carrying the same urgency it always did when systems burned.

"I know."

"How far are you?"

"Just making the second turn." Harvey merged into the second lane. "Listen. Pull the usual nodes first. Isolate the outer firewalls and force in a hard reset on the secondary authentication layers–"

"Harvey," Henry's voice cut across the instructions. "This one's different."

Harvey's fingers tightened on the phone. "How? Just jump through the employee VPN tunnels and–"

"We can't stop it from outside," Henry cut in again. Then he sighed. "Not this time. Whoever hit them went straight for the core. Must be an insider employee...I don't know. But the only way to stop this is direct access to the main server. Inside Harvax. No remote bridge will hold long enough."

Harvey exhaled through his teeth. "Damn it!"

Silence stretched for a beat. Then Harvey spoke again, already mapping a path on his head. "You'll go in then. You'll pose as one from an external cybersecurity firm who'd render services. They'll all panic and let you in. Get to the server floor–"

"No."

Harvey's eyes flicked to the road. "What do you mean, no?"

"Oh you know what I mean," Henry replied with a level tone. "You've fixed every single one of those attacks since the crazy series began. You let Jonathan stand before the damn board and take credit for it every time. And you know as well as I do that he hates your guts. He always wants to look like a hero before Jane. But now he can't because we've got a problem here too. If you send me, he'll still find some crazy way to own the victory. But if you go yourself–"

Harvey's jaw worked. "I can't."

"Why not?"

"You know why."

Henry didn't soften. "You've been the one holding that company together in the dark for a whole year. You've watched that awful Jonathan guy smirk you across conference tables while he collects your victories. You've watched him lean too close to your wife and laugh when her family tears you down. This is the first time the whole company is completely dark, Harvey. The first time someone has to walk through the front door and put hands on the hardware. If you let him take the credit again, you'll never know what else he's planning. This is your one chance, Harvey. Prove to those crazy people that the man their daughter married isn't just the empty suit they kept calling him. Show Jane, one more time, why she was right about you. Or we scramble for another way and hope the company is still standing by Monday."

Harvey said not a word.

The traffic light ahead turned red, and he eased to a stop.

Outside the windshield, the busy city moved in familiar weekend patterns–joggers, delivery vans, a couple arguing on the corner.

Every mocking remark and incident from the past year slowly rose in Harvey's mind as he waited for the traffic light.

Eleanor's laughter over the necklace, James' verdict on the marriage, Kyle's open disgust, Jonathan's eyes drifting to Jane whenever Harvey was around.

He hadn't absorbed it all back then. He'd just told himself it didn't matter as long as Jane's hand still found his in the dark.

He'd told himself that her love was enough, and keeping Harvax alive from the shadows was a way of repaying Jane for staying by him.

But that moment, he suddenly felt the fear that Jane might break to the pressure someday if he didn't prove himself soon enough.

Henry's voice came softer now. "If you don't want to do this, we must start looking for another way fast. Because if that core stays compromised for the next hour, Harvax doesn't recover. Not this time."

Harvey shut his eyes briefly. He thought of Jane's face when she had put on the necklace, the soft wonder and excitement before her mother ruined the moment. He thought of the way she had looked at him across the sitting room while her family tore him down, the quiet loyalty that never wavered.

Oh, he'd never survive it if she turned her back on him at last.

The traffic light turned green.

Harvey opened his eyes, shifted into gear, and drove straight forward–toward Harvax Inc.