Chapter -19 The Counterattack

The sun came up over the city, casting pale light over it, but Alexander could not sense its warmth. His mind spun with each move Cassandra could make. The pilfered files were deadly not just to her empire, but to anyone who would dare oppose her.

Isabella sat across from him in a small, hidden apartment, her eyes scanning the encrypted data on the laptop. “We need a plan,” she said, voice tight. “She’s going to come after us hard, and if we’re not ready…”

Alexander nodded. “I know. But she won’t hit us directly at least, not yet. She’ll test us first, probe our weaknesses.”

Lucas pacing in the distance, growled to himself. "She's not testing. She's marking us. Get ready for every last one of the things you have to be used against you friends, family, money. She doesn't forgive, and she doesn't forget."

A shock from Alexander's phone startled all three of them. A text from an unknown number:

"You thought you could steal from me and not pay? Think again. You have 24 hours."

Isabella stiffened. "That's. precise. She has an idea we hold the files."

Alexander ground his teeth. "It's a threat. A warning. But she wants us to respond. That's her first misstep."

Hours passed, and the tension in the apartment grew close to being unbearable. Then came the initial sign of her retaliatory measures: Lucas' contacts showing irregularities. Funds were frozen, suspicious phone calls from supposed authorities, and an entire network of people now wondering about allegiances. Cassandra was cutting them off in all directions, beginning to isolate them.

"See?" Lucas spat. "She's not just a problem. She's a storm."

That evening, Alexander, Isabella, and Lucas made up their minds to take the battle to her. They used the documents they had stolen to identify a pattern soft spots in Cassandra's operations that were susceptible to revelation. Used skillfully, they could open up a diversion, making her divide her troops.

"Try to strike at her where it will really hurt?" Isabella queried, her fingers resting over the keyboard.

Alexander nodded. "Exactly. But we do it cleverly. One step, one blow and then we vanish once more."

They made a coordinated attack on Cassandra's business empire. Data leaked strategically to her rivals, pushing her empire into chaos. But as they were enjoying the modest victory, a chill of fear crept over them: Cassandra had seen this coming.

On the door to the apartment was a single envelope, no lettering except her signature: a red letter "C.".

Inside: one photo of Alexander and Isabella, both sleeping.

No threat. No words. Only a promise.

Lucas looked at it with dread. "She's in our world now… she knows everything."

Alexander's hand shook a little as he put the photo on the table. "Then it's no longer about the files. It's about surviving her. And winning is being smarter, faster, and… colder than she ever imagined."

Isabella's eyes turned cold. "We live. Then we fight again. We can't be scared into hiding by her."

A tempest was building one that would push them to their limits. And for the first time, they realized this was more than a war of strategy. This was a matter of individual vengeance.

Cassandra had launched the first counterattack. And now Alexander and Isabella would strike back no matter what the cost.