Chapter twenty four: Ghost in the Machine (Sienna)

His cold, calculating eyes lingered on Jaxson’s unbraced leg before rising to meet mine. The subtle, triumphant curl of his lips made my stomach turn into a tight knot of panic.

"Corporate espionage?" Jaxson’s voice boomed across the room, low and deadly. He stepped deliberately in front of me, placing his massive frame between Bronisław's guards and my body. "You step into my private recovery wing with armed muscle and spout absolute nonsense, Vance."

Bronisław didn't flinch. He casually adjusted his silk tie, his posture radiating the untouchable arrogance of a man who owned the judges, the police, and the narrative.

"It’s not nonsense, Cole," Bronisław said smoothly, pulling a signed document from his leather briefcase. "An hour ago, our internal cybersecurity division flagged a massive breach originating from Miss Vance's encrypted medical portal. Proprietary biomechanical patents, board communications, and confidential player data were exfiltrated directly from her terminal."

"That's a lie," I said, my voice shaking with a dangerous mixture of fury and disbelief as I stepped out from behind Jaxson's shoulder. "I haven't logged into the main server since yesterday evening before the storm hit. My tablet has been in my hand or in my secure locker the entire night."

"The server logs don't lie, my dear niece," Bronisław murmured, his tone dripping with patronizing sympathy. "Your digital footprint is all over the breach. The board has already suspended your license, revoked your clinical clearance, and authorized an immediate asset freeze. Security is here to escort you to our legal holding division in Kraków for questioning."

"She’s not going anywhere with you," Jaxson growled, taking a threatening step forward. The guards instantly reached toward their jackets, their eyes fixing on his movements.

"Stand down, Jaxson!" I interjected sharply, catching his forearm. I couldn't let him ruin his life or risk physical injury fighting armed corporate muscle over a setup. "If he wants to play with technical logs, I have my own local access. I’ll prove he's lying right here, right now."

Bronisław gave a faint, amused shrug. "Be my guest. Try to access the medical portal."

My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird. I backed away toward my workstation table, pulling my high-grade medical tablet out of its secure leather case. My fingers were trembling, cold sweat slicking my palms, but I forced myself to maintain composure. For years, my medical license and my pristine professional reputation had been my armor—the only thing I had built with my own hands after my parents died. I wasn't going to let Bronisław tear it away without a fight.

I powered on the device, the sharp blue backlight illuminating my face.

My professional pride surged as I pulled up the encrypted portal interface. I had spent months documenting Jaxson’s miraculous physical progress—the precise angle of his patellar tracking, the quad activation metrics, the undeniable proof that he was healing under my care without their rigged brace. If I could upload his morning progress logs to the neutral international sports medicine registry, Bronisław's legal claims would crumble in court.

I brought up the secure biometric login screen.

User: S_Vance_MD_889

License Verification: Verified

I pressed my thumb against the tablet's optical scanner and typed in my master twenty-character passkey.

Processing authorization...

A harsh, crimson red banner flashed across the center of the display, accompanied by a sharp, electronic warning beep that echoed off the gym's mirror-lined walls.

[ACCESS DENIED: CREDENTIALS REVOKED]

[REASON: SECURITY CLEARANCE TERMINATED BY ADMINISTRATIVE OVERRIDE]

A cold, icy numbness started at the base of my neck and rushed through my bloodstream.

"No... no, that's impossible," I whispered under my breath, my thumbs flying across the screen as I attempted to execute a manual override through my secondary medical token.

[ERROR 403: USER ACCOUNT LOCKED]

My throat closed up. The professional shield I had worn so proudly was being stripped away line by line, right in front of the man who had tried to break Jaxson.

"I told you," Bronisław said, his voice coming through the quiet like a venomous hiss. "Your access has been revoked across all networks. You are no longer a recognized medical practitioner within Vance Sports Legacy."

"You locked my credentials from the back end," I rasped, looking up with raw fury in my eyes. "You revoked my clearance so I couldn't upload the proof that Jaxson is walking without your brace!"

"Speculation," Bronisław replied smoothly. "Hand over the tablet, Sienna."

"Don't touch it," Jaxson warned, his voice vibrating with pure rage as he kept himself planted firmly between the guards and my desk.

I stared down at the screen, my chest heaving, tears of absolute frustration stinging my eyes. I couldn't accept it. I couldn't let my life's work die behind a fake administrative lockout. I swiped down on the tablet's master command interface, attempting to force a local offline cache export onto a physical memory card.

That's when I saw it.

In the top right-hand corner of my administrative status bar, a tiny, discreet green indicator icon was pulsing rapidly.

It wasn't an offline error. It was an active network sync.

My breath caught in my throat. I tapped the background process monitor, dropping down into the root system diagnostics.

Lines of dark system code were executing rapidly in the background, completely bypassing my user interface controls. Files were being pulled out of my encrypted local vault at an terrifying rate—Jaxson's confidential medical histories, high-resolution MRI scans, surgical video logs, and private psychological assessments.

Uploading... 45%

Uploading... 62%

Uploading... 88%

My heart stopped dead in my chest. Immediate, suffocating horror washed over me.

The system wasn't just locking me out. It was actively using my logged-in identity as an open Trojan horse. Someone was remotely operating my tablet through an administrative backdoor, siphoning Jaxson’s entire private file history and stamping my digital signature onto the outgoing transmission.

My eyes darted to the destination address listed at the bottom of the active transfer socket:

DESTINATION IP: 185.220.101.4 [EXTERNAL PUBLIC SERVER - KRAKÓW PRESS MEDIA GROUP]

They weren't just framing me for corporate espionage. They were using my master credentials to leak Jaxson’s confidential medical records to the public tabloid press—a leak that would instantly trigger his contract's moral turpitude clause, destroy his market value, and ruin his career forever. And my name was signed at the bottom of every single stolen file.

"You didn't just lock me out," I breathed, horror choking my voice as I looked up at Bronisław, my face completely drained of color. "You're leaking his records right now... from my account."

Bronisław didn't deny it. He simply checked his gold wristwatch, a cold, ruthless glint in his eyes. "Guard three, secure the drive."

The largest guard stepped forward, reaching for his hip holster.

Jaxson didn't hesitate. With explosive, athletic speed that defied his recovering leg, he lunged across the distance, his massive fist smashing directly into the guard's jaw before the man could draw his weapon. The guard crashed backward into the glass partition, shattering it into a thousand sparkling shards.

"Sienna, run!" Jaxson roared, grabbing the second guard by the tactical vest and slamming him hard onto the turf mat.

My hands shook wildly as I snatched the tablet off the desk. I turned to sprint toward the rear emergency exit, but as I hit the crash bar, a sharp, deafening explosion detonated on the secondary floor below, shaking the entire building to its foundation.