PIPE Trades. Flow of Funds. Internal Settlement Logs.
Run. The wheel spins.
Spins.
And then—There it is.
Rows of transactions. Amounts that don’t line up. Sell-offs that shouldn’t exist.
It’s not just smoke. It’s fire.
Undeniable movement just before the PIPE deal closes.
Someone knew. Someone acted.
I download everything. Attach the PDF to the encrypted shell.
Then I start pulling more. Broader date ranges. Backed-up internal memos. Even a flagged trade or two I hadn’t planned on touching.
If I’m getting locked out, I might as well take the whole damn house down with me.
The screen flashes.
ACCESS DENIED.
Session Terminated.
I stare at it, frozen.
And then…
I breathe.
No alarms. No crash. Just silence.
That’s it. I’m out. And weirdly, it feels like freedom.
I forward the data to Sugar with a short note: “That’s all I’ve got. They’ve cut me off.”
And it’s done. I'm not a mole anymore. I'm a man who made a choice.
I push away from the desk, still running hot, but clearheaded.
The damage is done.
Ashley’s face from earlier flickers through my mind’s eye. The tension in her jaw. The way she looked at me like she wanted to ask a hundred questions but didn’t know where to start.
She deserves answers.
Soon, she’ll get them.
All of them.
LIKE A FIRST DATE
ASHLEY
Afew minutes before 6:30, I step out of the elevator and scan the lobby.
