👉 Previous Action: You chose to use unwitting courier Leo to carry the air-gapped data receiver into the server room.
Kien and Marcus meticulously prepared the package. The data receiver, disguised as a generic network diagnostic tool, was tucked into a small, official-looking box. The label indicated delivery to a fabricated “Auxiliary IT Support, Server Rack 7B” on Sub-Level 3. They even included a set of simple, typed instructions: “Plug into port. Confirm blinking light. Return package to sender.”
Kien found Leo Chen in the mailroom, sorting packages with his usual earnestness. “Leo, I have a priority delivery for Sub-Level 3,” Kien said, handing him the box. “Critical system update. Needs to be done within the next hour.”
Leo’s eyes widened. “Of course, Mr. Doan! Right away.” He carefully placed the package on his cart, oblivious to the high stakes.
An hour later, Kien’s secure comm channel buzzed. It was Marcus. “It worked,” he whispered, a tremor of excitement in his voice. “Leo plugged it in, followed the instructions perfectly. The data transfer initiated without a single flag.”
Kien let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.
Later that night, in Marcus’s shielded office, the full raw text messaging logs unfurled across a secure display. It was a digital torrent, thousands of messages, emails, and internal memos spanning years.
The evidence was devastating. Evelyn’s communications with board members outlined the entire scheme: the calculated manipulation of Kien’s bankruptcy, the specific clauses in his contract granting Aetheris — and by extension, Evelyn — “full and irreversible ownership” of his “unconscious intellectual output.”
There were messages detailing the daily harvest of his neural network designs, specific instructions on how to leverage the memory severance to ensure his “optimal compliance.” One message from Evelyn stated, “He’s a goldmine. Just needs to be managed.” Another revealed her plan to patent his groundbreaking work under an Aetheris subsidiary, with herself listed as co-inventor.
Kien stared at the screen, a cold fury settling in his gut. The pain of betrayal was immense, but it was now overshadowed by the overwhelming clarity of proof. It was all there, undeniable, indisputable. Evelyn’s corporate sabotage, her identity exploitation, her cold, calculating ambition laid bare in black and white.
“This,” Marcus said, his finger tracing a particularly damning message, “is everything we need. This will bring them all down.”
➡️ Read CHAPTER 14 to continue the story
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