Chapter 5 - The Corporate Counter-Offensive
Back at Fort Meade, the situation room was buzzing with high-level activity. Marcus handed me an encrypted secure tablet displaying a corporate wiretap summary.
“Colonel, we’ve got a secondary complication,” Marcus said, his brow furrowed. “The defense contractor firm that Ryan was collaborating with—Apex Systems—just tried to scrub their servers clean. They realized our cyber unit is tracking their financial pipeline.”
I tapped the screen, reviewing the firewall breach logs. “They’re trying to burn the bridge before we cross it. Are they routing through civilian servers?”
“Yes, ma’am. Commercial cloud providers in Zurich and Singapore. Standard offshore layering to hide illicit kickbacks.”
I smiled—a cold, calculated grin that made even seasoned intelligence officers tread lightly. “They think offshore servers protect them from a military cyber command? Marcus, deploy the tactical disruption script. Route a reverse-trace packet directly into their primary routing table, lock their administrative credentials, and pull every offshore file into our secure enclave.”
“Executing now, Colonel.”
For the next two hours, the briefing room was silent except for the rhythmic clicking of keyboards and the soft hum of cooling fans. On the tactical wall display, cascading lines of green code scrolled downward at blinding speed.
“Got ’em,” Marcus announced, slamming his hand lightly on the desk. “We have full access to Apex Systems’ internal financial ledger, executive email archives, and offshore shell company registry. Not only were they paying Ryan kickbacks for classified contract bids, but they were also actively leaking defense logistics data to foreign brokers.”
I stood up, adjusting the silver eagles on my collar. “That elevates this from a domestic embezzlement case to a direct national security threat. Draft an emergency arrest warrant for the CEO of Apex Systems, and coordinate with Interpol for immediate asset seizure across all European subsidiaries.”
“Done, ma’am. What about Ryan’s involvement in the leak?”
“He’s small fry,” I said dismissively. “He thought he was playing a high-stakes game of corporate espionage, but he was just a useful idiot for a much larger syndicate. Let him rot in federal detention while we dismantle the entire operation from the top down.”
My phone buzzed again. This time, it wasn't Ryan or Linda. It was a restricted military intelligence hotline.
I picked up, pressing the encrypted receiver to my ear. “Vance.”
“Colonel Vance,” a deep, gravelly voice echoed through the speaker—the voice of the Deputy Director of National Intelligence. “We’ve been monitoring your unit's cyber offensive against Apex Systems. Outstanding work. The Secretary of Defense wants a full debriefing on your desk by 0800 tomorrow.”
“Understood, sir,” I replied evenly. “We’ll have the complete dossier ready.”
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“And Colonel?” the voice added, pausing slightly. “Heard about your domestic situation. If anyone ever touches an officer of your caliber again, let me know. We have ways of making people disappear.”
A genuine smile finally touched my lips. “Thank you, sir. But I handle my own perimeter security.”
