Chapter 190: The Leak

The leak came from the reviewer's laptop.

Forensic specialists recovered a sophisticated one-time malware package hidden inside the fake ethics document.

It activated briefly, copied selected files from a secure viewing cache, and deleted itself.

The attacker obtained several future chapter headings.

Not the entire manuscript.

That explained BURN_192.

Freya felt enormous relief.

A human adversary had learned the title after all.

The manuscript had not magically communicated with Northstar's attackers.

Now they needed the attacker.

The phishing infrastructure overlapped with servers used in the Northstar intrusion.

Investigators traced a payment chain through cryptocurrency exchanges and eventually to a contractor in Eastern Europe.

The contractor claimed he had been hired anonymously to test Northstar's security.

He provided the communication account used by his client.

Derek recognized the writing style in the messages.

Eliza did too.

Vale.

Nathan Vale denied involvement.

His lawyers called the allegation absurd.

Then investigators found a payment from one of Vale Institute's discretionary research accounts to an intermediary linked to the contractor.

Vale claimed the account had been misused.

Possible.

But the evidence was accumulating.

Why attack Northstar?

Investigators believed Vale wanted to provoke observable responses from Freya and Louis after exposing them to a predicted heading.

A live behavioral experiment.

Freya became furious.

He had learned nothing.

After all the consequences of Northwind, Vale was still treating people as research subjects.

The contractor said the instruction was explicit: create pressure, avoid casualties, observe response.

That did not make it acceptable.

Vale was detained for questioning.

His institute suspended him.

Freya did not celebrate.

The attack had failed, but the mindset behind it was disturbingly familiar.

Vale apparently wanted to test whether manuscript predictions remained accurate when subjects knew about them.

In other words, he had tried to turn Freya's rules into experimental variables.

Louis's anger was colder.

"He targeted my employees."

"No one was hurt."

"Because our security worked."

Freya agreed.

The review protocol was changed immediately.

Future headings would be viewed only on isolated terminals with no cached copies.

The compromised reviewer was not blamed. The phishing attack had been carefully designed.

Freya appreciated that.

Security failures needed fixing, not scapegoats.

Chapter 192 still existed.

But now everyone understood that at least part of the danger around it had been manufactured by Vale.

That weakened its psychological power.

Freya returned to work the next morning.

Mia asked whether she wanted to cancel meetings.

"No."

"Good."

Freya looked at her.

"You weren't going to let me, were you?"

"Absolutely not."

Freya smiled.

Two more chapters until 192, if anyone insisted on counting.

She did not.

At least, she tried not to.

Vale's alleged experiment also explained why the attackers avoided destructive actions once access attempts failed. Their instructions prioritized observation over damage. That reduced one fear but increased Freya's anger: Northstar's employees had been turned into unwilling participants in someone's research design.

Freya recorded the facts separately from her assumptions and continued with the next practical step. That habit had become one of the strongest protections she possessed. A dramatic explanation could wait; evidence could not. Louis understood the difference, and together they refused to let uncertainty turn ordinary decisions into reactions to a story neither of them had chosen.

Freya recorded the facts separately from her assumptions and continued with the next practical step. That habit had become one of the strongest protections she possessed. A dramatic explanation could wait; evidence could not. Louis understood the difference, and together they refused to let uncertainty turn ordinary decisions into reactions to a story neither of them had chosen.

Freya recorded the facts separately from her assumptions and continued with the next practical step. That habit had become one of the strongest protections she possessed. A dramatic explanation could wait; evidence could not. Louis understood the difference, and together they refused to let uncertainty turn ordinary decisions into reactions to a story neither of them had chosen.