Chapter 34 - Shadows of the Past
Julian slowly straightened up from the desk, his hands hovering over the polished wood surface as he met Dominic’s dark, unblinking gaze. The veneer of cold confidence that had carried him through the grand foyer had completely evaporated, replaced by the grim realization of a masterclass in counter-intelligence.
"You knew," Julian said softly, a bitter smile touching the corner of his mouth. "From the moment the ledger was left on the terrace... you knew it was a Trojan horse."
"A Trojan horse requires a hidden army inside the walls," Dominic replied, his eyes shifting momentarily toward Isabella, who stood frozen by the sideboard with her crystal glass still half-raised. "I didn't need an army to know when a ghost was trying to claw his way back into the light. The ledger’s hardware signature hasn't changed since 1998. Every terminal you touched tonight has been routing your administrative keys straight into an isolated sandbox server beneath this floor."
Vince stepped forward, lifting a heavy data-pad that displayed a live schematic of the estate's internal network routing. "The Zurich relay you thought you were using to siphon the accounts? It’s been looping back into a local diagnostic loop for the last forty-eight minutes. Your extraction team in the woods is currently staring down the barrels of automated perimeter drones that locked onto their thermal signatures the second they crossed the property line."
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Isabella stepped away from the desk, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "You let us walk right into the core. You let us think we had won the estate."
"Because a trap isn't effective if the mouse stays outside the cage," Dominic answered coldly. "You wanted my empire, Isabella. Now you can share the foundation."
