Chapter 22: Flipping the Board
**[The Safe House - 05:29 AM]**
The first light of dawn was beginning to bleed over the Aethelburg skyline.
A wash of pale grey against the deep indigo of the fading night.
Sleep was a distant memory, a luxury from a simpler time when Alex's biggest concern was solving routine homicides.
The safe house was no longer a sanctuary.
It was a war room.
The adrenaline from their narrow digital escape had been replaced by something colder and more dangerous.
A sharp, intensely focused energy that hummed between them like an electrical current.
The central holographic table was no longer displaying scientific data or temporal equations.
It now showed a single, ominous profile that dominated the space like a digital tombstone.
ELIAS DECKARD.
His file photo was at the center, those cold, shark-like eyes staring out at them.
Around it, a web of interconnected data points spread like a spider's web.
His routine, his known assets, his combat record, his sterile condo, his corporate office.
Everything they knew about him was laid out like a patient on an operating table.
Waiting for the surgeon's knife.
"He's a ghost," Alex said, breaking the long silence that had stretched between them.
He had been staring at the profile for nearly an hour, memorizing every detail.
"No friends, no family in the city, no romantic partners. His life is a sterile, closed loop."
"There's no leverage. No weak point to exploit."
He looked at Evelyn, who was nursing a cup of black coffee.
Her eyes never left the display, studying their enemy with the intensity of a chess master analyzing a grandmaster's game.
"So we make a direct approach," Alex continued, his voice low and intense.
"We find him. We ambush him. We get him to confess on tape."
------
Evelyn turned her head slowly to look at him.
One perfectly sculpted eyebrow raised in an expression that managed to be both amused and deeply concerned.
"You're thinking like a cop again, Alex," she said, her tone flat and disapproving.
"A reckless one."
"It's the only way," he argued, frustration creeping into his voice.
"We have the element of surprise. We know who he is. He doesn't know about us, not really."
"Wrong," she countered instantly, setting down her coffee with a sharp click.
"He knows someone with an impossible level of skill broke into his black site."
"He knows they weren't afraid of him. He will be expecting a direct approach."
"He is probably hoping for one."
She stood up and walked to the holographic display, her movements fluid and confident.
Like a predator circling its prey.
"A man like Deckard doesn't 'confess'," she said, her voice laced with cold pragmatism.
"He doesn't monologue like a movie villain. He eliminates threats."
"A direct confrontation isn't an interrogation; it's a suicide mission."
"He is a master of physical conflict. He would kill us both before we got a single word out of him."
Alex felt the truth of her words settle in his chest like a weight.
The memory of the fight with Julian Croft was still fresh, still painful.
And Julian had been a mere amateur compared to Deckard.
"We can't attack his greatest strength," Evelyn continued, manipulating the holographic display with practiced ease.
"That's a fool's game. We have to attack his weakness."
"You just said he doesn't have one," Alex shot back, the frustration evident in his tone.
"He has one," she said, tapping the logo for OmniTech on the display.
"He has a master."
------
The corporate logo hung in the air between them, pulsing with soft blue light.
"Deckard is a tool. A perfect, lethal, invisible tool."
"His entire existence, his power, his freedom, it's all predicated on him being the perfect asset for OmniTech."
She turned to face him, a dangerous glint in her green eyes.
"So we stop trying to break the tool. We make the tool a liability to its owner."
The elegance of the concept was breathtaking.
Alex could see the strategy forming, like watching a master architect sketch the blueprints for a cathedral.
"If OmniTech sees him as a problem instead of a solution..."
"Then they'll cut him loose," Evelyn finished. "Or better yet, they'll eliminate him themselves."
"We turn his greatest strength—his corporate backing—into his greatest weakness."
------
**[The Safe House - 06:15 AM]**
A new plan began to form on the holographic display.
A multi-layered, intricate web of deception that was both beautiful and terrifying in its complexity.
It was Evelyn's brainchild, and it was brilliant.
"We can't expose Project Chimera," she explained, pacing slowly in front of the display like a general briefing her troops.
"OmniTech would just bury it, and us with it. The secret is too big."
"They would level half this city to keep it quiet."
"So we create a new fire. A smaller one. A believable one."
"A problem that OmniTech would send a man like Deckard to solve quietly."
She laid out the plan with methodical precision.
"Operation Trojan Horse."
The name appeared on the display in bold, military-style lettering.
"First, the lure," she said, bringing up a series of fabricated corporate files.
"We create a data leak. Something big enough to demand Deckard's personal attention."
"But not so big it triggers a full corporate lockdown."
"We'll say a rival corporation, 'Stratos Global', has a mole inside OmniTech's advanced aeronautics division."
"The mole," Alex caught on quickly, his detective's mind already following the logic, "is about to leak the designs for a new stealth drone."
"Exactly," Evelyn confirmed with an approving nod.
"A multi-billion dollar project. A fireable offense. Corporate espionage."
"But not an 'erase your existence' level offense."
"Second, the delivery," she continued, her fingers dancing across the holographic interface.
"We can't just dump the fake data on the web. It has to look like an internal breach."
"I've found a low-level, internal security server that Deckard personally monitors for signs of employee disloyalty."
"We'll plant the leak there. He'll be the first to find it."
"He'll believe it's real because he discovered it himself."
------
The psychological elegance of the trap was stunning.
"Third, the trap," she concluded, bringing up a map of a desolate industrial park on the city's outskirts.
"The fake leak will point to a dead drop. A specific time and place where our phantom mole is going to hand off the final schematics to a Stratos Global agent."
"Deckard's job will be to intercept the package and neutralize the mole."
"He'll go there alone, expecting a simple corporate espionage meet."
"He'll be focused on the package, not on the environment."
"And that's where we'll be waiting," Alex finished, a slow smile spreading across his face as he grasped the full scope of the plan.
"Not to confront him," Evelyn corrected sternly, her voice carrying a warning.
"Never to confront him."
"We will be watching. We will have that entire location wired with our own high-resolution, multi-spectrum cameras and microphones."
"We will record him breaking into the dead drop location."
"We will record him retrieving the package."
"We will record him committing a dozen felonies on our own terms, in our own prepared kill box."
Alex felt a surge of admiration for the plan's sophistication.
"We won't get a confession for the murder of Albin Croft," she said, her voice taking on a note of grim satisfaction.
"But we will get something almost as good."
"Leverage. Undeniable, high-definition proof that OmniTech's top ghost isn't a ghost at all."
"Proof that we can leak to the right people, making him a visible, messy, unacceptable liability."
The plan was perfect.
It was a scalpel where they had been thinking of using a sledgehammer.
------
**[The Safe House - 09:47 AM]**
For the rest of the day, they worked with the focused intensity of master craftsmen.
They were a blur of synergistic, high-tech activity.
Evelyn was in her element, a digital artist at the absolute peak of her powers.
She built the fake corporate documents from scratch, line by line, pixel by pixel.
Technical schematics for a non-existent stealth drone that looked utterly convincing.
Encrypted email chains between phantom executives discussing budget overruns and development delays.
Financial projections that showed the project's massive potential value.
She created an entire digital ecosystem around a believable, multi-billion dollar corporate secret.
Alex's role was more subtle, but just as crucial.
He couldn't build the code, but he could give it a soul.
He sat with the neural interface, using CrimeSync for a purpose it was never designed for.
He was a psychological ghostwriter, crafting the perfect digital persona.
*[CrimeSync: Analyzing OmniTech corporate culture, communication protocols, and known psychological profiles of senior researchers...]*
*[Generating plausible vernacular and grievance templates for a disgruntled, high-level engineer...]*
He wrote the emails for their phantom mole with meticulous care.
He filled them with the perfect blend of technical jargon and passive-aggressive complaints about management.
A believable, simmering resentment toward corporate policies and missed promotions.
The kind of petty grievances that drove people to treason.
He made the mole feel real. Human. Flawed.
Together, they crafted a perfect, irresistible piece of bait.
A story so convincing that even they almost started to believe it.
------
**[The Safe House - 07:22 PM]**
It was done.
The Trojan Horse was built, polished, and ready for deployment.
"Ready to upload," Evelyn said, her voice tight with anticipation.
On the holographic screen, she had opened a direct access portal to the low-level OmniTech server that Deckard monitored.
The connection was encrypted, anonymous, and utterly untraceable.
"Once this is in, the clock starts ticking," she warned, her finger hovering over the final command.
"He'll find it within hours. The only question is how quickly he'll act."
"Do it," Alex said simply.
With a final, decisive keystroke, Evelyn uploaded the package.
The data transferred in less than a second, a digital arrow fired into the heart of OmniTech's security apparatus.
It was done. The bait was in the water.
Evelyn closed the connection, leaving no trace of their intrusion.
She brought up the live traffic camera feed focused on the entrance of OmniTech Tower.
The cars and people moved below in their daily routines, oblivious to the digital time bomb that had just been armed.
"The board is set," Evelyn whispered, her green eyes reflecting the city lights.
"Now we wait for the ghost to make his move."
Alex stared at the tower, knowing that somewhere inside that glass and steel monument, their trap was waiting to be discovered.
The hunter was about to become the hunted.
------
**DETECTIVE'S LOG: ALEX STONE**
**CASE FILE: 002 - The Clockmaker (Unofficial)**
**STATUS:** Offensive strategy has been formulated and executed.
**KEY EVIDENCE (CRIMESYNC DATA):**
* Strategic Evolution: Plan "Operation Trojan Horse" is now live and deployed.
* Method: A fabricated, but psychologically authentic, corporate espionage scenario has been planted on a secure OmniTech server personally monitored by Elias Deckard.
* Psychological Profile: CrimeSync analysis was used to create a convincing disgruntled employee persona with realistic grievances and communication patterns.
* Objective: To lure Deckard to a prepared "dead drop" location and record him committing multiple felonies, thereby creating leverage to turn OmniTech against their own asset.
**CURRENT OBJECTIVE:** Monitor Deckard's digital activity for signs he has discovered the bait. Prepare the dead drop location for comprehensive surveillance. Wait for the ghost to step into our web.
**PERSONAL NOTE:** I've gone from investigating a simple murder to crafting elaborate deception operations against corporate assassins. Working with Nyx has opened my eyes to possibilities I never imagined. We're not just seeking justice anymore—we're waging psychological warfare. Julian would be amazed at how far this has gone. I just hope we're smart enough to survive what comes next.
**End of Chapter 22**
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*"The best traps are the ones that make the prey think they're the hunter." - Unknown*
To be continued...
____________________________________________
His old job was to erase murders.
His new job is to solve them.
But when you're a ghost in another man's life, the only rules that matter are your own.
My new psychological thriller, Crimelink: The Ghost Protocol, is now live.
When a syndicate's ghost is reborn as a Delhi cop, he must use the dark skills of his past to solve a perfect murder his superiors have already closed. He sees the lies... but can he survive the truth?
➤ Start reading now!
~~~
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