Chapter 13 - THE ARCHITECT'S CALLThe sun broke through the storm clouds the following morning, casting a brilliant, golden light over the bruised landscape of the suburban hills. Vance Industries’ emergency tech teams had successfully contained the cyber-attack, deploying the Honeycomb Protocol to trap the hackers' IP addresses and trace their physical routing back to a private penthouse suite in downtown Manhattan.
Arthur sat behind his massive desk at corporate headquarters, sipping black coffee as Marcus stood beside him with a tablet displaying real-time satellite feeds.
Suddenly, the secure landline on Arthur’s desk began to ring. It wasn't an external number; it was a secure, encrypted line that only three people on earth possessed.
Arthur picked up the receiver and pressed it to his ear. Silence hung on the line for a long moment, broken only by the sound of smooth, calculated breathing.
"Impressive, Arthur," a deep, gravelly voice echoed through the speaker—a voice dripping with arrogance and cold amusement. "You managed to slaughter my advance team and fry my secondary server nodes. You’ve grown teeth since the last time I looked your way."
"The Architect, I presume," Arthur replied, his voice chillingly calm. "You picked the wrong family to mess with. Your little puppet Evelyn is rotting in a federal cell, and your mercenaries are fertilizer. It’s time for you to crawl back into whatever hole you crawled out of."
A low, sinister chuckle vibrated from the other end of the line. "Evelyn was merely a disposable pawn, my boy. A distraction to test your defenses while the real game was being played elsewhere. While you were busy playing hero in your mansion, my financial partners have quietly acquired a controlling majority of voting shares on the open market. Vance Industries is no longer yours."
Arthur’s eyes widened slightly, a sudden realization hitting him like a physical blow. He gestured frantically to Marcus, who was already tapping furiously on his tablet.
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"Check the board registry!" Arthur snapped into the phone while glaring at Marcus.
Marcus looked up from his screen, his face draining of all color. He shook his head slowly in absolute horror.
