All Chapters of Once Bitten, Twice Shy: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

"I can tell you where it came from," Devika Rao said. "I can't tell you who."My head of technology stood at the long table with her laptop open. She was thirty-four, small, quick, and not given to guessing. Behind her, a map of the company's email server glowed on the wall."Start with where," I said."The message left through the partnerships account. It's a shared address. Twenty-two people on the sales floor have the password. It logs in from any device, any time. There's no record of which person typed which message.""Why not?""Because someone set it up that way years ago, to save time." She winced. "I'd have shut it down in a heartbeat if I'd known.""Can you check the log?""I did. The email was sent at eleven forty on Tuesday night. From a laptop on our own network, in the building." She held up a hand before I could speak. "But there's a guest login on that network. Anyone on the sales floor could have used it. A visitor could have used it. I can't narrow it further."Priya

"Don't say the word 'spy,'" Milo said."He works for Northstar.""He works for a lot of companies." Milo set his glasses on the table and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Elise, I know what it looks like. I looked at the same page. But I've spent twenty years watching people turn timing into proof."It was eight the next morning. We sat in the long conference room with Renata Cole, a pot of black coffee, and the printed list of Northstar's new advisers. Nathaniel stood by the window with his arms folded, as usual. Teo hovered near the door with a tablet."Tell me what you found," I said.Renata slid a folder across the table. "Three things. First, Julian Voss has consulted for this company before. Two years ago, he ran a pricing study for the freight division. He signed a standard confidentiality agreement, and it expired last spring.""He worked for us?""He worked for you, and for Northstar, on separate projects, in different years. That's common in consulting. Advisers cross between

"They offered you what?" Priya said."Eighteen months of staying away from us." Abe Fenwick shoved his hands in his jacket pockets. "And they'd pay every cost of switching. Software, training, a penalty on my current contract. All of it."The loading bay had gone quiet. Rosa stared at her boots. Joon Park pretended to study the tracking screen. Everyone in the circle wanted to look at me and no one wanted to be seen doing it.I could have matched it. The thought arrived whole and tempting. Pay his switching costs myself, buy his loyalty with cash, and keep the best client in the pilot.I knew the math. It would take sixty thousand dollars out of the operating budget, money I needed for fuel, drivers, and the first month of Ned Birchfield's rent. If I spent it on Abe, I'd be broke by week three.So I didn't reach for my checkbook."Abe," I said, "I'm not going to ask you to stay for a price."He frowned. "Then what are you going to ask?""What do you actually need?"He blinked. "I told

"Send me the clause," I said."Of course." Daniel's voice was smooth. "I'll email the agreement now. Two pages. You'll find it simple."I put the phone on speaker and set it on the kitchen counter. My soup sat cold by my elbow. Nathaniel had woken at the sound of my voice, and now he stood in the doorway with his hair standing up, listening.The email arrived in ten seconds. I opened the attachment and read the paragraph I knew would be there.*Section 3. Data Access. Northstar shall have access to all operational data generated by the Pilot Network during the Term, including but not limited to participant identities, customer lists, order histories, pricing, and delivery records.*I read it twice. Then I read it aloud.Nathaniel's jaw tightened."Daniel," I said. "This isn't routes, volumes, and delivery times.""It's a standard clause.""It says customer lists. It says order histories. It says 'all operational data.'""That's the language our lawyers use.""It's much broader than yo

"No," I told Harriet Okonjo on Monday morning. "But not the way you think."I sat in my father's office with the phone to my ear and a legal pad in front of me. Milo was in the chair across the desk, his glasses on his forehead, mouthing *careful* every time I looked up. I had spent the weekend with the five-year clause. I had read it, argued with it, and slept badly beside it."Go on," Harriet said."I understand why you asked. I'd ask the same thing in your place." I took a breath. "But I can't promise a thing I can't control. Five years is a long time. A bank could fail. A partner could die. A law could change. If I sign a promise never to sell, and the company needs to adapt, I've tied my own hands. And if I break it, I've broken my word to forty families.""So you refuse.""I refuse the promise. I'm offering a better protection."A pause. "I'm listening.""If I ever sell, or if anyone buys a controlling share of the network, you get the right to leave. Ninety days' notice. Full p