Chapter 34
"The old rules are changing. The old ways of doing business don't work anymore.
Especially when your enemies can attack from anywhere in the world through fibre optic cables."
"What do you see?" Indigo asked quietly, recognizing the signs of his precognitive ability activating.
"They're starting early," Remy said. "11:44 PM.
The lead hacker, Dmitri, is eager. He's going to initiate the probe two minutes ahead of schedule because he wants this job finished so he can go to sleep.
The other two will follow his lead."
"Amateur mistake," Nyx said, her fingers poised over her keyboard like a pianist preparing for a concert.
"Deviating from the planned timeline because you're tired. That's how you make mistakes."
The room fell silent except for the hum of electronics and the distant sound of traffic from the street outside.
The city continued its eternal motion, unaware that in this modest building, a battle was beginning that would decide the fate of a major real estate empire and potentially send a powerful man to federal prison.
At 11:44 PM and seventeen seconds, an alert chimed softly on Nyx's centre screen.
"Contact," she said, her voice suddenly cold and professional. "Initial probe on the honeypot.
They're testing the vulnerability, seeing if it's real." Her fingers flew across the keyboard.
"And they're taking the bait. Establishing connection. They think they're in."
More alerts appeared, red indicators that would have been terrifying if this wasn't exactly what they'd planned for.
"Three separate connections now," Nyx reported. "All three hackers breaching what they think is our main server.
Beautiful. They're spreading out to cover more ground, trying to wipe different data sets simultaneously.
Classic coordinated attack pattern."
She pulled up another window, showing lines of code scrolling past at impossible speeds.
"And there's my path back. Following the connection to... Bucharest, as predicted.
Bouncing through Singapore servers. Very sophisticated routing. But not sophisticated enough."
"Can you get to the source?" Marcus asked, leaning forward in his chair.
"Give me thirty seconds," Nyx said, her eyes reflecting the blue glow of her screens.
"I need to....yes. Yes! I'm through. I'm in the Parston corporate network.
Their internal server. Oh my God, they didn't even have proper network segmentation.
This is embarrassing. For them, I mean. For a company their size to have security, this weak...."
"Focus," Remy said gently. "What do you see?"
"Everything," Nyx breathed, awe in her voice. "Email archives going back five years. Financial records. Board meeting minutes.
Communications between Thomas Parston and... oh wow. Oh, this is bad. It's really bad. For them."
"What?" Lyra demanded. "What did you find?"
"Evidence of at least fifteen separate instances of securities fraud," Nyx said, opening new windows and taking screenshots.
"Market manipulation. Insider trading. Bribery of government officials.
Thomas Parston has been running a criminal enterprise disguised as a real estate company.
And he documented everything. Emails, spreadsheets, and meeting notes. It's all here."
"That's impossible," Marcus said. "No one would be that stupid. No one would keep records of their own crimes."
"Arrogance," Remy said quietly. "He never thought anyone would be able to access these systems. He never imagined someone like Nyx existed.
So he kept meticulous records because that's what successful businessmen do. They document everything.
He just never imagined his own documentation would be his downfall."
"I'm downloading everything," Nyx said, as external hard drives whirring to life beside her laptops.
"But carefully. Taking only what we need, leaving no trace of my presence.
As far as their logs will show, I was never here. But we'll have copies of everything."
Silas appeared beside Remy, his ghostly form visible only to him, glowing softly in the darkened conference room.
"She's magnificent," the ghost whispered. "A warrior for the digital age. Your choice in companions is impeccable, boy."
"I know," Remy thought back, watching Nyx work with the same focus she'd once applied to chasing perfect grades, but now channelled into something meaningful.
"They're all magnificent. Each of them brilliant in different ways."
"11:57 PM," Nyx announced. "The hackers have been active for thirteen minutes.
They think they've corrupted about 60% of our data. Meanwhile, I've now accessed six different Parston subsidiary servers.
The evidence just keeps growing. Wire fraud. Tax evasion. Money laundering through offshore accounts.
Thomas Parston is going to prison for the rest of his life."
"How long until they realize they're in a honeypot?" Marcus asked.
"They won't," Nyx said confidently. "The environment is perfect. They're seeing file corruption confirmations, system errors, and all the feedback they expect from a successful attack.
They have no idea they're basically performing for an audience."
She pulled up another window. "And I'm recording everything. Every keystroke, every command, every file they think they're deleting.
Time-stamped, cryptographically signed, completely admissible in court.
This isn't just evidence of tonight's attack. it's a complete chain of custody documenting criminal conspiracy."
At 12:14 AM, another alert sounded different from the others, sharper, more urgent.
"That's the completion signal," Nyx said. "They think they've finished.
They're starting to withdraw, covering their tracks, or trying to. They're deleting their connection logs, wiping their tools, trying to erase any evidence they were ever here."
"Let them," Remy said. "Let them think they succeeded."
Nyx's fingers flew across the keyboard one final time. "And... disconnected.
They're gone. As far as they know, they just successfully crippled Castellane Real Estate and covered their tracks perfectly."
She leaned back in her chair, exhaling heavily, then started to laugh, a slightly manic sound of relief and triumph.
"That was incredible. That was absolutely incredible.
Did I just help take down a criminal empire? Did that actually just happen?"
"That actually just happened," Lyra confirmed, moving around the table to hug Nyx from behind.
"You were amazing. You saved my family's company and documented enough evidence to put Thomas Parston away for decades."
"What happens now?" Indigo asked, looking at Remy.
"Now we compile everything," Remy said, pulling out his phone. "The evidence of tonight's attack.
The financial crimes Nyx discovered. The connections to Victor Parston's previous illegal activities.
We package it all up in a format that's clear, documented, and impossible to ignore."
He started typing a message to his lawyer, one of three he kept on retainer now, each specialized in different areas.
"Then, tomorrow morning, before Thomas Parston can realize what happened, we deliver everything to the FBI's white-collar crime division.
Not the SEC. They're slower. Also, not local police, because they don't have jurisdiction. The FBI, who can move fast and hit hard."
"And then?" Marcus asked.
"Then we watch his empire fall," Remy said simply. "By 12:17 PM. Tomorrow, federal agents will execute search warrants on every Parston property.
By 6:00 PM, Thomas Parston will be in custody. And by the end of the week, the story will be everywhere.
A powerful real estate mogul brought down by his own arrogance and a college student he underestimated."
He looked around the conference room, at Nyx still in her chair surrounded by evidence of her technical brilliance.
Then, at Lyra standing protectively behind her, at Indigo pouring fresh coffee with the contentment of someone who'd found her place.
And finally at Marcus Castellane, who'd watched these young people save his life's work.
"The old guard is falling," Remy said quietly.
"Men like Thomas Parston, who built their fortunes on intimidation and illegal practices.
Men like him who thought wealth and connections made them untouchable.
They're learning that the world has changed. Those new rules do not apply anymore and that someone with the right gifts and the right allies can bring down titans."
"And what happens after the Titans fall?" Marcus asked. "What do you build in their place?"
Remy smiled, his golden eyes catching the light from Nyx's screens.
"Something better. Something that doesn't crush people to succeed.
Something that lifts everyone up instead of standing on top of broken competitors."
He looked at the three women who'd somehow become not just his girlfriends but his partners in every sense.
"We build an empire. Not like the Parstons, not built on cruelty and crime.
But built on innovation, partnership, and using our gifts to create rather than destroy."
"That's ambitious," Indigo observed with a slight smile.
"Destroy the old order and build a new one. All before you're old enough to rent a car without extra fees."
"Ambitious is good," Lyra said, her silver eyes bright. "Ambitious is what got us all here.
Being ambitious is what took a suicidal boy and turned him into someone who could challenge Titans.
It's what took three broken women and helped them heal into something stronger."
"To ambitious," Nyx said, raising her coffee cup in a toast."
"To impossible things becoming possible."
"To the old order falling and the new one rising."
"To actually believe we can change the world."
They all raised their cups, which was coffee for most of them, though Marcus had added something stronger to his from a flask he'd produced from his jacket.
"To changing the world," they echoed.
In that conference room at 12:49 AM, surrounded by evidence of crimes and the debris of their battle, four young people and one protective father made a pact.
They would build something better. Something that the titans of the old world couldn't understand or stop.
Something that started with taking down Thomas Parston but would grow into something larger, more meaningful, and more transformative.
The war against one criminal empire was nearly won.
But the campaign to build something better in its place was only just beginning.
Outside, the city slept, unaware that in this modest building, the future had just changed.
And that tomorrow, a titan would fall.