Wolfe didn't waste time.
By dawn, a private command room was reactivated—Room Zero, a restricted surveillance and intelligence hub deep below the tower. It had only been used twice in ten years. This was the third.
Evelyn stood before the holoscreen, reading facial match results while Wolfe scanned encrypted files from a silent partner's server farm in Zurich. The tension between them had changed—it was no longer just magnetic. It was tactical.
"You were right," Wolfe said. "The man following you isn't just surveillance. He's ex-intelligence. Russian. Used to work freelance for a security firm Rhys invested in six years ago."
Evelyn crossed her arms. "He's not trying to hurt me. He's trying to intimidate you."
"Or bait me into a mistake."
"Too late for that," she muttered. "You already let me in."
Wolfe turned toward her, expression unreadable. "And I don't regret it."
She held his gaze. "Then don't protect me by pushing me out. Let me help."
He nodded once. "Then we start where Rhys is weakest."
---
Hours later, Evelyn sat across from one of Wolfe Global's most discreet forensic accountants: Clara Devreaux.
Clara handed over a slim tablet. "Shell companies traced back to a Luxembourg fund—Rhys is diverting money into a biotech firm in Singapore. Quiet, unregistered. But it's bleeding capital."
Evelyn's eyes narrowed. "That's not investment. That's payoff."
"Or blackmail," Clara said.
Evelyn forwarded the findings to Wolfe with a single line:
"He's buying silence. Or buying someone."
---
That night, Evelyn stood on the tower's rooftop with Wolfe. No words. Just wind and neon silence.
"He's moving too fast," Wolfe said. "Trying to trigger a reaction."
"You won't give him one."
"I already have. I showed him you matter."
She turned to him. "Good. Because I'm not a weakness. I'm a weapon."
Wolfe exhaled slowly, then looked at her.
"We hit back tomorrow."
"How?"
He reached into his coat and handed her a dossier.
On the cover: Project Parallax.
"What's this?" she asked.
"Leverage," he said. "The kind that ends careers—or starts wars."
In the dark, Evelyn opened it.
Her pulse quickened.
The game had changed.
And now… it was hers too.