Before the doors closed again, she said:
“Daniel.”
He turned.
“Come back after this is over.”
His expression became guarded.
“Why?”
Her voice softened.
“Because next time, let me be the one who refuses to let you destroy yourself.”
The elevator doors closed before he answered.
Alexandra stood alone.
Her heart was beating faster than a cyberattack justified.
She disliked that immediately.
By nine that morning, the company’s first crisis under her leadership had become worse.
The external attack had stopped.
Completely.
One minute there were thousands of probes.
The next there were none.
The Security Director called it good news.
Alexandra did not.
Neither did Daniel.
She called him from her office.
He answered after six rings.
His voice sounded half asleep.
“What?”
“The outside traffic stopped.”
Silence.
Then:
“Don’t restart.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Good.”
She looked at the city through her glass office.
“Why stop?”
“To see what we do.”
“You sound awake.”
“I hate you.”
Alexandra smiled.
“Sleep.”
“Then stop calling.”
She ended the call.
Ten seconds later she called again.
He answered immediately.
“Seriously?”
“One question.”
“No.”
“The credential inside our system.”
Daniel sighed.
“What about it?”
“Can we identify who created it?”
“It’s legitimate.”
“What?”
“It belongs to a retired executive certificate.”
Alexandra straightened.
“Whose?”
Daniel was silent.
“Daniel.”
“The former CTO.”
She stared toward the door.
The previous CTO had resigned after fighting her appointment.
That was too convenient.
“Could he be doing this?”
“Possible.”
“Likely?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s not stupid enough to sign an intrusion with his own name.”
Alexandra sat.
“You think it’s planted.”
“I think somebody wants us to think fast.”
She smiled faintly.
“What?”
“You told me to sleep.”
“And?”
“You’re now asking the questions I would ask.”
“Is that a compliment?”
“Don’t get used to it.”
The call ended.
Alexandra spent the next four hours doing something new CEOs were rarely encouraged to do.
She listened.
Not only to executives.
To engineers.
Junior analysts.
Fraud specialists.
Night staff.
People who understood individual pieces of the system.
Patterns emerged.
The attack began during leadership transition.
It targeted systems whose failure would appear catastrophic to markets but would not necessarily steal customer funds.
It was designed to create chaos.
Publicly visible chaos.
Alexandra asked the obvious question.
“Who benefits?”
The Chief Financial Officer answered:
“Competitors.”
Security said:
“Extortion group.”
Legal said:
“Short sellers.”
The board Chairman said:
“Maybe nobody.”
That answer interested her.
“What do you mean?”
“Some attacks destroy because they can.”