The black sedan deposited Anya Lin back at the Thorne Estate exactly two minutes before her 10 PM curfew. She walked back into the opulent, silent fortress with the exhausted, slightly disheveled look of a woman who had endured a stressful day of sorting junk—perfectly masking the mental intensity of a successful double operation.
Kaius Thorne was waiting. He wasn't in his study; he was standing in the immense, chilling foyer, backlit by the crystal chandelier, his face a mask of cold fury.
"Mrs. Thorne," he stated, his voice low and dangerous. "I trust your non-competitive employment was satisfactory."
Anya trembled slightly, dropping her gaze. "It was... necessary, Mr. Thorne. Miss Lydia was very upset this morning. I only wished to put some distance between us."
Kaius ignored the domestic excuse. He was holding his tablet, the screen showing Silas Trent's recent debriefing report. Trent was humiliated, unable to explain how the entire Thorne network had been secured and upgraded while his team was supposedly locking it down.
"Silas Trent's team found no evidence of any intrusion, only evidence of a successful remediation. They cannot explain how the firewall was patched. This 'Phoenix' is toying with us," Kaius ground out. "The individual is not acting like a typical extortionist. They took the five million, but they didn't try to shut the system down again. They made it stronger."
Anya risked a glance up, her eyes wide behind the glasses. "Perhaps... perhaps they are not a criminal, Mr. Thorne. Perhaps they truly are... a security consultant."
Kaius stared at her, the suspicion of the morning returning with force. The timing of the Phoenix warning, the demand for the untraceable account, and now her suddenly strong stance on her 'rights'—it was all too convenient.
"You are going to your room, Anya," Kaius commanded, his tone final. "And you will stay there. My Chief of Staff, Mr. Wallace, will be here first thing tomorrow to set up your account. After that, I expect silence and invisibility."
The next morning, Mr. Wallace, Kaius's meticulous Chief of Staff, arrived at Anya's room with a stack of bank forms. Wallace was a man who lived and died by procedure, and he clearly viewed setting up the despised CEO's wife with an allowance as a tedious, insulting chore.
"Mrs. Thorne," Wallace said, not looking up from his clipboard. "Per Mr. Thorne's instruction, this is the application for your new, numbered savings account. It is designed for absolute privacy. You will receive a small monthly stipend for personal expenditures. Sign here."
Anya took the pen, her hand steady now, thanks to the Qi-Nourishing Tincture. She looked over the bank's terms. It was a high-tier, secure Swiss account—the very kind she needed to launder the seed money and manage the funds for the Shadow Syndicate investigation. Kaius had handed her the perfect financial instrument.
Anya signed quickly. Then, she pushed a secondary form—a simple corporate transfer request—across the desk to Wallace.
"Mr. Wallace," she said, her voice soft but authoritative. "Before you go. Could you please process this for me? I need to use some of my newly allocated funds immediately."
Wallace looked at the form. It was a request for an immediate transfer of $50,000 USD to an unlisted personal account—the exact amount promised to Jax, the internal hacker.
Wallace frowned, his professionalism instantly piqued. "Mrs. Thorne, this account is for your personal use. This is a massive expenditure. It's only been open for minutes."
"It is a personal expenditure, Mr. Wallace," Anya insisted, meeting his eye—a direct challenge that shook his procedural confidence. "I am investing in my non-competitive employment—the allowance Kaius authorized. This is a private commission for a rare medical text I require for my studies. I need it immediately to start working on the Lin Matriarch's health."
She had used three keywords: Authorized employment, medical text, and Matriarch's health.
Wallace hated her demand, but the Matriarch's health was a sensitive Lin-Thorne matter, and Anya had the PNA loophole. If Kaius had permitted non-competitive work, and she was spending her own allowance on it, Wallace couldn't stop her without incurring the CEO's wrath for being an "unnecessary distraction."
"Very well, Mrs. Thorne," Wallace clipped, making a note to report the suspicious transaction immediately to Kaius. "It will be processed."
As Wallace left, the transfer was initiated. The Phoenix had just paid her internal source.
The Retaliation of Jax
Anya didn't have to wait long. An hour later, her phone chimed with an encrypted message from Jax.
> Jax: (Encrypted Message, High Alert): Phoenix—I got the transfer. The code is secure. But I have a problem. Trent's team is not gone. They're trying to plant a back-door of their own into the Aegis system on the way out to frame you for future failure. Trent is furious he got beaten.
>
Anya's eyes narrowed. This was not simple corporate revenge; this was a move orchestrated by Silas Trent to reclaim his reputation and discredit Kaius's decision to accept the Phoenix's aid.
Analysis: If Trent successfully compromises the network, Kaius will be forced to trust Trent again and will immediately suspect Anya/Phoenix.
Anya immediately began typing, her fingers moving like the wind. She needed to expose Trent without revealing her physical location or true identity.
> Phoenix: (Encrypted Message): This is unacceptable. They are compromising the system. Jax, this is your last, and most critical, task. You must divert one specific file—Trent's personal report on his planned future Aegis security improvements—and send it to Kaius Thorne's personal terminal. Do not send it via the Thorne network. Send it through an external, anonymous email. The subject line must read: "Proof of Treachery."
>
The plan was subtle: Trent's report was legitimate, but by sending it anonymously, Jax would frame Trent as the one who was secretly leaking privileged internal information—making Trent look like the source of the initial security breach and the extortion attempt.
Kaius's Unholy Alliance
Kaius Thorne was reviewing Trent's final, boilerplate summary in his study when his personal terminal—the one Anya had aimed for—flashed with a new, external email.
Subject: Proof of Treachery.
He opened the attachment. It was Silas Trent's highly confidential internal proposal for the "next generation" of Aegis security. But the email was anonymous and had been sent from an internet café in the financial district.
Kaius's mind, already sharp and paranoid, put the pieces together instantly:
* Trent was furious about Phoenix's success.
* Trent had access to this hyper-confidential report.
* Someone anonymous—Phoenix or a Phoenix ally—just leaked it to him.
Kaius slammed his hand on the desk. He didn't see Trent as a vengeful employee; he saw him as the true architect of the entire extortion plot. Trent had created the vulnerability, demanded the money, and then tried to frame his clean-up as incompetence.
He immediately called Commander Stone. "I want Silas Trent's access revoked. Escort him and his team off the premises. And Stone, I want a full forensic analysis on Trent's team's systems. If they left anything behind, I want it flagged as a virus."
Kaius sat back, running a hand over his face. He had averted a total disaster, not by using his own men, but by relying on the very ghost that had invaded his system.
Phoenix. The ghost was not trying to destroy his company; the ghost was protecting it.
He opened his secure network and typed a message to the Phoenix terminal.
> Kaius Thorne: (Encrypted Message): Trent is gone. The breach is secure. I will allow you to continue providing security consultation. You have access to a secure external terminal that reports directly to me. Do not abuse my trust.
>
Anya received the message minutes later. A slow, genuine smile curved her lips. The CEO had just fully legitimized the Phoenix identity and put her in a privileged position of direct, secret communication.
Just then, a maid knocked softly on her door. "Mrs. Thorne, the Matriarch has requested your presence in her sitting room for tea."
The request was unusual. The Matriarch never spoke to the unwanted bride.
Anya quickly put on her timid facade and descended to the Lin Matriarch's room. The elderly woman, though frail, was formidable.
"Anya," the Matriarch said, her voice thin. "I hear you are interested in old herbal remedies."
"Yes, Matriarch," Anya replied meekly. "I am trying to learn more about my grandmother's traditional methods. For health."
The Matriarch leaned forward, her eyes surprisingly clear. "Good. Because your family has been trying to poison me for months. They have altered my medicinal tea. I am dying, Anya. But I have not told anyone, not even your father, because I need to see who inherits my share of the Lin votes first."
She reached out and placed a small, ornate jade box in Anya's hands. "You married the Thorne boy. You are a Lin. Find the poison. Cure me. And I will ensure you have the votes to stop Julian and Elena from destroying the company entirely. If you fail, I will die, and the Lin family will collapse into the hands of greedy fools. This is your first duty as a wife and a daughter."
Anya looked down at the jade box, her mind racing. The Lin Matriarch wasn't just sick; she was a victim of attempted murder and a desperate political chess player. And she had just given the Dr. A identity a patient, a motive, and the key to the Lin family's ultimate downfall.
The quiet, fragile life of Anya Lin was over. The game of survival had just become a political assassination attempt, and the only doctor who could save the Matriarch was the one Kaius had just ordered to be invisible.