The next morning didn't feel like morning.
It felt like continuation.
Emily sat in the operations room at the Milan headquarters, surrounded by screens filled with data streams, surveillance feeds, financial trails, and internal logs. The glow of monitors painted everything in cold blue light.
She hadn't gone back to sleep after the conversation with Alexander.
Instead, she came here.
Because thinking in the dark alone was worse.
Sophia stood across from her, arms crossed, watching one of the screens replay hotel access logs.
"You're looking for something specific," Sophia said.
Emily nodded slowly.
"Yes."
"What?"
Emily leaned forward slightly, eyes scanning line after line of timestamps.
"Pattern."
Sophia didn't interrupt.
Emily continued:
"Shanghai fire. Internal access leak. System override in Milan. Then the crash."
She tapped the table lightly.
"These aren't random attacks."
"No," Sophia agreed. "They're coordinated."
Emily shook her head.
"More than that."
She pointed at the screen.
"Each time, they test something first."
Sophia narrowed her eyes.
"Test?"
"Shanghai—small system irregularities before the fire.""Milan—minor booking errors before the major sabotage.""The hallway smoke before the crash."
Emily looked up.
"They probe. They observe our response. Then they escalate."
Sophia was silent for a moment.
Then:
"You're saying they're studying us."
"Yes."
A pause.
Then Emily added quietly:
"And adapting."
That was the dangerous part.
Because that meant—
This wasn't just an enemy.
It was a strategist.
Sophia exhaled slowly.
"That puts them on Alexander's level."
Emily didn't respond immediately.
Then:
"Or above it."