Aria did not waste a single moment.
The car carrying her and Elias sped away from the military base and headed back toward the city. Elias was silent, watching the road, but he could feel the intense energy coming from Aria beside him. She was already in her hacker mode, her dark eyes scanning her phone screen, which was connected to a specialized, secure tablet hidden in a compartment under her seat.
"Ryland wants a fight for integrity," Aria murmured, her fingers flying over the tablet, which displayed Zenith Records' organizational chart. He used his music as a shield. I will use his own system against him. He should have known better than to challenge a soldier.
"You are going to hack a publicly traded company, Aria," Elias said, his voice low with concern. Zenith is bigger than us. They have strong cybersecurity. This is not some dockside smuggling ring's ancient servers.
"The size does not matter, Elias," she replied, not looking up. The firewalls are just tall walls. Jax Ryland, as the creative head and highest shareholder, controls the entire digital vault. His weakness is that he is an artist, not a soldier. He trusts his team and his security software too much.
Aria found the key she needed: the planned digital launch event for the Eclipse album cycle. This massive virtual concert was the entire reason for the fifty million dollar acquisition. Jax, as the main producer, had the ultimate login credentials for the master launch servers.
"I need access to the Master Content Server," Aria stated. If I can get in there, I can reverse his freeze. I can release the album's assets. And I can leave a message he will never forget.
"How will you find his credentials?" Elias asked. "You cannot brute force a top security password."
Aria finally looked up, a cold, predatory smile touching her lips. I do not need his password. I need his people. Everyone who works closely with an executive like Jax Ryland has a digital footprint. A manager, an assistant, a producer. Someone who handles his travel, his schedule, his studio locks. Someone who has enough access to reset his main production password.
She quickly pulled up the executive team profile. Ah, there he is. Silas Trent. Jax's long-time manager. A man who looks perpetually stressed by money. Stress creates mistakes.
Aria began her work. She wasn't targeting Silas's main banking accounts; she was looking for a minor, easily overlooked weakness. She found it in Silas's travel booking software. He used a well known, but slightly outdated, platform for all of Aether's international tours.
"The travel platform has a security flaw," Aria explained. It allows me to plant a small, invisible bit of code, a Trojan Horse, on Silas's personal laptop when he checks his flight details. That code will look for password reset requests and send me a copy before the system processes it.
She worked for twenty minutes, silently navigating the deep web, leaving no trace. Elias watched her, the same mixture of awe and fear he always felt when she went to work. She was terrifyingly smart.
"It is done," Aria announced, her eyes flashing. Now we wait. Silas Trent will panic because of Jax's press release. He will try to log into the main server to check the damage. When he tries to fix Jax's bold move, he will need a password reset, and I will be there.
Meanwhile, the Aether camp was in full chaos.
Jax, looking tired but energized, was fielding calls in the Zenith Records war room. Damian Reed, the CEO, was arguing loudly with lawyers on another line. Silas Trent was sweating through his shirt, frantically trying to calm nervous shareholders. Kellan, Rhys, and Nick sat on a large leather couch, watching the financial news tickers.
"The stock dropped two points, Jax," Silas said, running a shaky hand through his hair. Vance Global is screaming. They are threatening lawsuits for breach of good faith. Damian is going crazy. We have to reverse the freeze! Your move was too big!
"We stand firm, Silas," Jax said, his voice hard. They will fold. I saw Aria Thorne's face. She is desperate to unfreeze this, not for the money, but for her corporate cover. She needs this deal to look stable for her own scheme. We wait for her to crack.
Nick, the youngest and most playful, leaned over to Kellan. This is insane. We are literally crashing the stock market for a girl.
"It's not for a girl, Nick," Kellan corrected quietly. It's for control. Jax saw something in her that threatened everything we built. He is fighting for our integrity, even if he is doing it in the most dramatic way possible.l
Rhys, meanwhile, was scrolling through fan posts. The fans, though, are incredible. Look at this! 'Aether is the only group fighting the machine!' This is the best PR we have ever had, even if it might bankrupt us.
Silas interrupted them. I need to check the security protocols on the Master Server, just in case. They will try to hack us, Jax. Vance Global might try to hit us where it hurts: the Eclipse masters.
Silas rushed to his laptop. He needed to log into the main system to check the firewalls, but his main password for the administrative console had expired.
"I need a password reset," Silas muttered, typing rapidly.
Aria, sitting silently in the speeding car, watched her tablet. The invisible Trojan Horse worked perfectly. An automated password reset request for 'Silas Trent, Executive Manager' flashed across her screen.
Aria thought: Thank you, Silas. Stress is an excellent weapon. He has given me the key.
Aria quickly intercepted the token, generated a new administrative password, and logged directly into the Zenith Records core system. She did not use the password to gain full access; she used it to create a brand new, undetectable administrative account for herself, one step below Jax Ryland's executive clearance.
She was in.
Aria moved through the network like a ghost. She bypassed the firewalls Jax trusted and located the master file for the Eclipse project. She found the "freeze" code Jax had implemented a small, but effective, line of script that halted all distribution and production.
With a few keystrokes, she deleted the freeze code. The project is now unlocked.
But she wasn't finished. She needed to send a message.
Aria located the official Aether social media accounts and the band's official website. She opened the 'news' section on the Zenith homepage, which Jax had intended to use for the album launch announcement.
She inserted a single line of text into the code of the main Zenith website, set to display only to Jax Ryland's specific computer.
She also accessed Jax's personal, highly secured digital studio drive, the place where he kept his rough, unfinished musical ideas. She knew he would be there when he discovered the breach.
Aria found a single, unreleased track, a raw, emotional piano piece he had recorded late one night. It was vulnerable, beautiful, and deeply personal. She didn't delete it or steal it. She copied a single, ten-second clip of the song, converted it to a low-quality audio file, and set it to autoplay silently on the master production console in Jax's private studio.
She logged out, deleting every trace of her presence, every temporary file, and every log of the password reset. The only thing left was the hidden admin account, waiting in the shadows.
"It is done, Elias," Aria said, closing the tablet with a sharp clack. The entire operation had taken less than thirty minutes.
"You unblocked the deal?" Elias asked, impressed.
"And I sent Ryland a message," Aria replied, a flicker of something cold and satisfied in her eyes. He wanted to know who I was. Now he will. We have corporate stability. We have our own clean cover. And now, he knows he is fighting someone who plays a very different game.
Back at Zenith Records, Jax saw the stock ticker on his wall. It began to stabilize.
"What is happening?" Silas demanded, staring at his laptop, where the security warning had suddenly vanished. The system is... clean. The freeze script is gone. Someone just reversed your command, Jax.
Jax felt a chill run down his spine. He knew, instantly, that a normal hacker could not have done this. To delete his unique code and leave no trace meant someone with military level skill had been inside their system. A regular corporate spy would have left digital fingerprints. This person was a ghost.
He quickly logged into his desktop and pulled up the Zenith Records website. He expected to see a statement from Vance Global. Instead, a tiny, almost invisible message flashed only on his screen, then vanished.
The message was one word, a word Aria had used during their chaotic, desperate moment in the club:
PASSENGER.
Jax's blood ran cold. He knew it was her. She had been inside his system. She had proven her point.
He grabbed his keycard and ran out of the war room, ignoring Silas's frantic questions. He had to check the Master Content Server.
He slammed the door to his private studio open and rushed to his main production console. The room was silent. Everything looked normal. He checked the firewalls. They were green. He checked the freeze script. It was indeed gone.
He sat down, his heart racing, breathing heavily. He was angry and terrified.
Then, a low, faint sound began playing from his speakers. It was barely audible, a mournful, solitary piano melody.
Jax froze. He knew that sound. It was the unreleased track, the one he had recorded when he first left home, the one about the rough start, the one about the touching past with his parents. The track was highly emotional and deeply personal, locked in a subfolder only he could access.
Aria had been inside his private life. He felt a cold rage. This was worse than any corporate attack. This was a violation.
He jumped up and checked the console. The clip played for ten seconds, then stopped. There was no trace of the file's presence in the system logs.
Jax slammed his fist onto the marble console. "Aria Thorne," he whispered, his voice shaking with a potent mix of fury and fear.
He understood her threat completely. She didn't want his money. She wanted control over the outcome of the corporate deal, and she had just shown him she could completely destroy his creative life, his passion, and his reputation with a few clicks. She had found his biggest weakness: his heart, wrapped up in his music.
Jax thought: She is not just a spy. She is a weapon aimed directly at me. I have to find out what she really is.
Two days later, the corporate situation had stabilized. Vance Global was pleased, and the Eclipse project was running again. The press was still buzzing about the Aether Integrity stand, which Jax managed to spin as a momentary disagreement over the contract fine print.
Jax, Kellan, Rhys, and Nick were back in the studio, trying to record. But the tension between Jax and the rest of the group was thick. Jax was distant, obsessed.
"Dude, you are off-key," Nick said, putting down his guitar. Nick, the charming, handsome, and funny youngest member, was usually the most patient, but even he was getting frustrated. What's going on, Jax? You got your control back, the album is un frozen. Why are you acting like we're being followed?
"We are," Jax muttered, running a hand through his hair. I cannot talk about it. But we have a problem. A serious, dangerous problem that is not Elias Vance.
Kellan, the most sensitive, watched Jax carefully. It's her, isn't it? Aria Thorne. Did she threaten you?
Jax looked at his friends. He couldn't tell them the truth that a highly skilled stranger had hacked their company and played his deepest, most vulnerable piece of music to him as a threat.
"She played a move," Jax admitted. A corporate move. She reminded me that my system is vulnerable. We have to be on guard. I need to know everything about her, Nick. Everything. The public stuff, the private stuff. If she is a spy, we need to know her targets.
Nick was surprised by the sudden, intense command. "Why me?"
"Because you're the most charming," Jax said, a flash of his old strategic self returning. And because you are harmless. She won't see you coming. Elias Vance has a secretary, I heard. Find her. Talk to her. She might know something about Aria's schedule, her movements, anything.
Nick loved a challenge. His playful nature meant he loved games, and this sounded like a corporate spy game.
"A beautiful, mysterious female spy, corporate intrigue, and a secret mission," Nick grinned. Sounds like fun. Okay, Jax. I am on it. Operation Charming Assassin is a go.
Across town, Aria was preparing for a very different kind of social challenge. She was going to a dinner hosted by Elias Vance. She hated these events; they were necessary for maintaining her disguise, but they were exhausting.
As she dressed in her penthouse apartment, Elias called.
The deal is stabilized, Aria. Jax Ryland is silent, Elias said. "You won the first round."
He is not silent, Elias. He is planning, Aria said, looking at her reflection. She looked beautiful in the designer dress but underneath, she was all muscle and scars. He is smart. He will not stop until he knows the truth. We need to maintain the cover perfectly. No mistakes at the dinner tonight.
"I know, I know," Elias sighed. Victoria and Chloe will be there. Try to be nice.
Aria paused, the memory of her horrible stepmother and stepsister, Victoria Thorne and Chloe Thorne, flooding her mind. They were the women who had treated her badly, who had set up her kidnapping years ago. They were the reason she had been left alone and found by the soldiers, the reason she became a soldier. She hated having to face them.
"I will be the perfect, elegant shareholder," Aria promised. "I will be so polite it will make them sick."
But as she hung up the phone, her mind was on the man who had called her a liar and provoked her to break her silence. Jax Ryland. She thought about his music, the raw, beautiful piano piece. She felt a sudden, confusing surge of guilt for having violated that part of him.
Aria thought: He is a soldier for his art. I am a soldier for lives. We are both fighters. But he is a fool for stepping into my battlefield.
She was ready for the night. She was ready for the corporate show. But she was not ready for the charming, funny young man she was about to meet, the one who would not ask about her past, but simply ask her to play a game.