Chapter 5

Karmen had barely caught her breath when heavy knuckles pounded on her bedroom door.

"Kem! Open up, let's have a drink!" Stanislaw's voice was muffled through the wood, dripping with fake camaraderie.

Karmen squeezed her eyes shut. She dragged herself off the floor, quickly smoothing the wrinkles out of her trousers. She unlocked the door and pulled it open.

Stanislaw stood there holding two crystal tumblers filled with amber liquid. He pushed past her into the room without waiting for an invitation, shoving one of the heavy glasses into her hand.

"Come to the study," Stanislaw ordered, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Karmen gripped the cold glass. She followed him down the hall, the scent of expensive scotch burning her nostrils.

Stanislaw's study was a dark, oppressive room paneled in mahogany, smelling permanently of stale cigar smoke. It felt like a cage.

Stanislaw walked straight to the large painting behind his desk. He swung it open, revealing a steel wall safe. He rapidly punched in the code. The heavy bolts retracted with a loud, mechanical clunk.

He pulled out a thick manila folder and threw it onto the center of his massive desk. It landed with a heavy slap.

He pointed to the leather chair opposite the desk. "Sit."

Karmen sat down slowly, resting the untouched scotch on the edge of the desk. She looked at the folder. Printed in bold black ink across the front was: Nexus Dynamics M&A Rider.

"Read it," Stanislaw commanded, taking a large gulp of his drink.

Karmen opened the folder. Her eyes scanned the dense, legally convoluted paragraphs. As she processed the corporate jargon, a cold knot of fury tightened in her chest.

This wasn't a standard merger agreement. This was a parasitic extraction.

The clauses explicitly transferred the core patents of the Aegis AI algorithm-the very technology her brother Kem had spent his life building-out of Nexus Dynamics and into a shell company entirely owned by Stanislaw.

If Earl signed this, Stanislaw would steal the technology, leaving Nexus Dynamics an empty husk and her brother with nothing.

Karmen's jaw clenched so hard her teeth ached. She wanted to rip the papers to shreds and shove them down his throat.

Instead, she leaned back in the chair, tossing the folder onto the desk with a loud sigh. She rubbed her temples, playing the part of the bored, intellectually stunted playboy.

"Too many words, old man," Karmen drawled. "What is this garbage?"

Stanislaw leaned over the desk, his eyes gleaming with predatory greed. "This is our golden ticket. Next Wednesday, at that private dinner, you are going to make sure Earl Calderon signs the last page of this document."

Karmen let out a harsh, mocking laugh. "You're delusional. Earl reads every comma. He's not going to sign away the AI patents to your shell company."

Stanislaw's smile turned dark and ugly. He leaned closer.

"You got that invitation, didn't you?" Stanislaw whispered, his eyes dropping to her crotch and back up. "You clearly know how to use your mouth to get what you want. Do whatever you have to do in that bedroom, Kem. I don't care how disgusting it is. Just get the signature."

The sheer vulgarity of the insult hit Karmen like a physical strike. Her stomach violently cramped.

She gripped the crystal tumbler so tightly she thought the glass would shatter in her hand. She lifted it to her lips and swallowed the scotch in one burning gulp. The alcohol seared her throat, masking the physical tremor in her body.

Stanislaw watched her, his expression hardening. "If you fail, Kem, I won't just cut your mother's trust fund. I'll stop paying the private security at your brother's clinic. Let's see how long he survives without his guards."

Karmen stopped breathing. The threat was absolute.

She lowered the empty glass. She forced her eyes to look defeated, utterly broken by his leverage.

She reached across the desk, grabbing the heavy Montblanc pen resting on the leather blotter. She flipped to the back page of the rider.

With a steady hand, she forged the signature: Kem Bartlett.

Stanislaw laughed aloud, a booming sound of triumph. He snatched the folder back, admiring the signature before sliding it back into the manila envelope. He shoved it into Karmen's chest.

"Don't disappoint me," he warned.

Karmen took the envelope. She stood up and walked out of the study without a backward glance.

Back in her room, she threw the envelope onto the bed like it was infected.

She walked into the bathroom and turned on the cold water. She splashed her face repeatedly, the freezing water doing nothing to cool the boiling rage inside her.

She stared at the scarred, ugly face in the mirror.

She wasn't going to get Earl to sign that contract. She was going to use it as a Trojan horse.

Karmen walked to her suitcase in the corner of the room. She unzipped a hidden lining in the fabric. From the dark recess, she pulled out a matte-black USB drive no larger than her thumbnail.

It was her custom-built infiltration tool. The signature weapon of the hacker known as Nyx.

She squeezed the hard metal drive in her fist until it bit into her skin.

Next Wednesday, she wasn't going to be a victim. She was going to tear the Calderon network apart from the inside.