Chapter 515:
In the hallway, Elias didn’t stop. He marched her into an alcove and pinned her against the wall, his hands on either side of her head.
“You are not to be alone with him,” Elias said, his eyes dark.
“He’s a patient,” Aurora said, her pulse quickening at his proximity.
“He’s a predator,” Elias corrected. “I saw how he looked at you. Like you were the main course.”
“Are you jealous, Elias?” Aurora teased, reaching up to adjust his collar.
Elias leaned down, his forehead resting against hers. “I’m territorial. There’s a difference.”
He kissed her then—not gentle, but claiming. A searing reminder of whose side he was on.
Aurora melted into it, her hands tangling in his hair.
A chirp from her phone broke the moment.
Aurora pulled back, breathless. She checked the screen.
ALERT: ZIEGLER BOARD INITIATING ASSET DUMP.
“The Board,” Aurora said, her eyes hardening. “They’re trying to burn the company down before I can take control.”
“Scorched earth,” Elias said, straightening his jacket. “They’d rather bankrupt the company than let you have it.”
Aurora dialed a number. “Activate Phoenix Aegis Reserve Fund Alpha. And get me a line to the Valoria Stock Exchange.”
She looked at Elias. “Ready to crash a market?”
“Always,” Elias smiled.
The Valoria Stock Exchange was a relic of the 19th century—a beautiful building filled with screaming men in suits. But the real war was happening in the silence of cyberspace.
I@†€$† ¢♄₳þŧëяŞ In Ġalπøνεlş.cøm
In the library of the estate, Aurora and Elias had set up a command center. Three monitors glowed with cascading data streams.
“Ziegler Pharmaceuticals is the crown jewel,” Aurora said, her fingers flying across the keyboard. “The board members are dumping shares to trigger a panic sell-off. They want the stock price to hit zero so the assets are worthless when I seize them.”
“Not for long,” Elias said. He was on his own laptop, accessing the dark web servers of ZeroPoint. “I’m injecting the leaked safety reports from the FDA trials they buried in 2018. The ones about the cardiac failures.”
“Do it,” Aurora commanded. “If they want to tank the price, let’s help them. I’ll buy the ashes for pennies.”
Elias hit enter.
On the main screen, a red line began to tick downward.
At the Ziegler Corporate Headquarters, the remaining executives were in a frenzy.
“Why is the stock dropping faster than we projected?” Acting CEO Kane yelled. “Someone else is selling!”
“It’s a massive short attack!” his analyst screamed. “But the sell volume is massive. Someone is dumping millions of shares!”
“Who has that kind of liquidity?” the CEO demanded.
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