Previously on Corporate Shadows
Nyx receives a tense call from her handler Adrien, the layers of loyalty and obligation begin to reveal themselves. Victor’s father Lucian has already contacted Adrien to demand answers about the latest attack, creating pressure from above even as Zara struggles to establish basic security protocols in just her first two hours on the job. When Victor discovers her reporting back to someone outside Aegis, a confrontation erupts over where her true allegiances lie. The revelation that she answers to Adrien, not to Victor himself, forces an uneasy compromise: she’ll continue her reports, but nothing in writing. The fragile alliance between Victor, Chameleon, and Nyx grew more strained by this, raising the terrifying possibility that his own bodyguard might be connected to the very attacks threatening his life.
Safe within Victor’s personal quarters and panic room office, Zara begins the difficult work of designing security measures to prevent future attacks. But with elevator access easily compromised, DNA verification circumventable, and the once-reliable Lynx Security now suspect, every solution seems to invite new vulnerabilities. As she drafts plans for biometric locks and verification protocols, one thing becomes clear: in a world where shapeshifters walk freely and neural link identities can be stolen, protecting Victor Ruthford may require more than just superior tactics—it may require deciding who, if anyone, can truly be trusted.
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Victor leaned back with a sigh once HR signed off. There was a pressure building behind his eyes and between his temples and, for the first time in a long time, he just wanted to take the rest of the day off, sit at his pottery wheel, and relax, thinking of nothing but what he was creating. No shareholders to please, no multi-billion dollar decisions to make, no fires to put out, just him and the clay.
But that was impossible, even more so with the instability that was, according to Margarette, not happening. He opened his eyes, and his gaze fell on Nyx. She was sitting cross-legged on the armchair, terminal balanced on her knees, tapping away at something. His pottery escape especially wasn’t happening with his babysitter around to see.
What’s she doing? he asked Aiko.
[--Compiling a list of security suggestions. Some of them are actually quite good. Others, a lot actually, will cause some push back.--]
Does she know you’re snooping?
[--If she does, she’s not letting on. She’s not hiding anything or trying to counter it.--]
Perhaps feeling his attention on her, Nyx looked up from what she was doing and said, “Your meeting finished?”
“That one is. I’m supposed to have another over lunch with the head of R&D, but I’ve cancelled that for obvious reasons. Normally this afternoon I would have another three meetings scheduled, then go home to write my reports and do other admin tasks. But that’s all in the calendar you have,” Victor said.
Nyx nodded. “I’m surprised you don’t have a PA. I thought that was a requirement for you CEO types.”
“Like the security, I used to. And when I was new to the job, it was a requirement to keep things running smoothly. But I know what I’m doing now and manage things better on my own without needing to rely on someone else to track everything. Plus, my VI is very advanced.”
[--Gee, thanks.--]
Any time.
“Works for me. The less people I have to worry about, the better. Speaking of, there’s a few things I’ve come up with that I want to implement sooner rather than later. Starting with-”
Victor held up a hand to halt her, and said, “Let’s wait until Chameleon gets back. They’ll be here soon, and I want them included.” They had sent Victor a message during his last meeting asking him to let them know when the meeting finished, which Aiko had done.
“Why? For all we know, Chameleon could be part of the leak,” Nyx said.
“Never,” Victor answered instantly.
“The person or people behind it know your schedule.” Nyx pointed to a finger, and then pointed to a new one with every statement. “They have access not only to Aegis levels, but to higher restricted levels. They knew I was there and at least somewhat competent since they sent so many, even if they under-estimated my skills. They have the resources to be able to afford to send so many. They have the influence to convince a bunch of mercs to take the job. All of which I could see someone with Chameleon’s unique skill set being able to organise.”
“It’s good that you don’t undervalue their skills, but they are not behind this. I trust no one more than them, not even you,” Victor said, his voice sharp. He was tired of her doubting his trust in Chameleon. It wasn’t as though he gave his trust freely, and she had no idea of the history between the two of them. Chameleon was the only person he could rely on to have his back. “They will need to know the changes you want to put in place in order to continue being effective.”
“Why not just have her be your bodyguard then?”
She was actually pouting! What was she, four? “That would mean revealing their existence to my father and the other board members. Something neither of us want,” he said, deciding not to call out her childishness. “Besides, they aren’t suited to outright combat.” Victor had seen them in a fight, or rather a brawl as it were, and while they had held their own, they didn’t walk away unscathed, and that was against a drunken lout, not highly trained attackers. He couldn’t risk his closest friend against such a foe.
“You can handle yourself. Well enough that you could probably teach her. I saw that when you took down one of the attackers. A clean headshot.”
That was at least less pouty and even had a touch of admiration in her tone. “Against one target, yes,” Victor conceded. “Not a small army.”
Nyx scoffed. “That’s not an army. But very well, we can wait. Is she bringing food? Her cookies were good.”
“They, not she,” Victor corrected.
“Really? Daisy is a woman’s name, and that was a woman’s form. Her mannerisms were all very feminine.”
There was no defensiveness or derision in Nyx’s tone, just curiosity. “Chameleon has changed form so many times, they no longer remember what their original body looked like, or what gender they may have been. So, we decided not to use male or female connotations. Of course, you’re welcome to match whatever pronoun to what form they’re wearing, but it gets confusing sometimes, especially if they’re changing regularly.”
“Even you don’t know what their original form is?”
Victor shook his head, the corners of his mouth turning down. “I was eighteen when I first met them, and they had already forgotten everything about who they were. It’s a long and sad story, not one that I am comfortable sharing.” He got the notification of the elevator arriving on his level. “Especially not since they have just arrived.”
Nyx leapt to her feet, and her eyes glazed over as she checked the cameras. She relaxed a little when she saw what Victor already knew, that Chameleon had arrived on their own as Daisy, and was carrying bags of food.
[--She’s probably going to go digging now,--] Aiko pointed out.
Let her. She won’t find anything.
The two of them stepped out of the office at the same time as Chameleon entered the kitchen. “Glad to see you’re still alive, deary, and that your rooms aren’t shot to shit,” they said as they put their bags on the kitchen counter and started pulling out containers with hot food, setting them on the breakfast bench.
“I think we’ll be fine for a little while. Whoever is behind all this would need to recoup after losing that many people.”
“Mm-mm,” Nyx disagreed as she slid onto one of the stools at the breakfast bench. “If they were smart, they would attack again now, while you’re thinking that way. Is this for me?” she asked, pointing to one of the containers.
“They’re all the same, so help yourself. Just something from the cafeteria so you don’t need to go down there today,” Chameleon said.
Victor took another of the stools while Chameleon jumped up onto the kitchen bench, sitting cross-legged on it.
I wish they wouldn’t do that, Victor said to Aiko, his eyes narrowing at Chameleon even as they ignored his expression.
[--Which is probably why they do it.--]
“If you think they’ll attack again, why are you so relaxed?” Victor asked.
“I said if they were smart they would attack again, and I don’t think they’re particularly smart,” Nyx said. She ripped the lid off one of the containers and dug in. “They prefer brute force over finesse,” she continued, talking with her mouth full. “Both attacks used mercs and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were shipped in from outside Neo-Echelon. No real skill, just get in and shoot it up.”
Victor found he couldn’t take his eyes off the woman as she practically shovelled food into her mouth. He glanced at Chameleon, who looked at him at the same time, eyebrows raised, before they both turned back to the vacuum before them.
The food was nearly all gone in that short time, and Nyx finally noticed them staring at her. “What? GHOST makes me hungry,” she defended.
“Ghost?” Victor asked. Surely she didn’t mean what Chameleon had called her during their covert surveillance. And even if she did, he failed to see how that would have anything to do with her hunger.
“Gradient Harmonic Optical Stealth Technology. GHOST. Really, I think someone was just enamoured with the idea of calling their tech GHOST so came up with a bunch of words that roughly described what it does and called it a day. I am surprised you haven’t heard of it though; it’s based off Aegis tech.”
Should I know about it?
[--There are mentions of a stealth technology in some of the records of Subjects Chameleon found, but none were successful in what they uncovered. But those records were old, so maybe something new?--]
“How did you get a hold of that tech?” Victor asked.
“And is it something I could acquire?” Chameleon added. Victor wasn’t sure why they would need it when they could simply change their form to blend into the crowd, but he supposed any advantage was a good thing.
Nyx shrugged. “No idea, to be honest. I’ve had the implant for as long as I can remember, and my handler taught me to harness it.”
It sounded like she was telling the truth just now, Victor said to Aiko. He had half expected her to lie or somehow obfuscate how she got the technology, but she didn’t seem interested in doing that. At least not about this.
[--Which would mean there must be more experiments with it earlier than what we’ve found so far.--]
Victor exchanged a meaningful look with Chameleon, trusting them to get his drift. They gave a small nod.
“You going to eat that?” Nyx said, pointing her fork at Victor’s food, which sat unopened in front of him.
“Yes,” he snapped, pulling it towards him protectively and opening the lid on the seafood rolls.
“Here, you can have mine,” Chameleon said, pushing their container towards her.
“Thanks,” Nyx said, and she attacked that one with just as much gusto.
Victor’s eyebrows rose as he looked at Chameleon. They just smiled and said, “I brought some ingredients to fill your pathetic excuse for a fridge. I’ll make up a few meals and eat one of them.”
Victor nodded and started eating his lunch. Truth be told, he wasn’t hungry; he rarely was and normally, if this were a lunch meeting like most days, he would just order a coffee with an extra guarana shot. But most days he didn’t have Chameleon hovering over him like an over-protective mother, and he knew they didn’t like it when he didn’t eat properly.
“So what were these security plans you had in mind?” Victor asked when he saw she had nearly finished Chameleon’s meal.
“They’re only temporary for now, but mostly involve a three factor authentication in order to access you. The first step is biometric access, connected to a person’s neural link.”
“We already have that,” Victor said.
“Yes, but do away with the keycards. Or at least limit their access to only the lower levels.”
“You only got one of those because I was notified of your arrival and was expecting you.”
“And how do you know I was who you were expecting and not someone else just pretending to be me? Especially if they did away with the real me beforehand? Trust me, a professional could imitate me and even my neural link authentication if they wanted. It’s one of my favourite tricks.”
“Okay, so remove access for all Visitor cards. What else?” Victor asked as he felt the acknowledgement from Aiko to do just that.
“DNA match to the neural link. As I said, imitating someone’s neural link isn’t too difficult, and honestly, a semi-pro could probably do it, but adding the extra step of it needing to match DNA is harder.”
“That will take time,” Victor said. It wasn’t impossible, but it was a bit troublesome.
“Make the time. Line up every employee and get a sample and connect it to their neural link then and there. I’m sure they would expect something like this after two attacks in two days, they would know that security needed to be tightened. And you can’t tell me you don’t already have some recorded DNA, anyway.”
How could she know that? Victor demanded of Aiko; it was true that they would record a person’s DNA if they qualified for an Aegis-sponsored bio-engineered upgrade, but it wasn’t common knowledge.
[--Logic and a healthy dash of suspicion?--]
Victor sighed. “All right. I’ll rearrange some things and meet with the heads of department this afternoon to get it underway.”
“You could probably set it up so that when they leave work today, they need to provide it, and then have it up and running for checking when they come in to work tomorrow,” Chameleon said as they chopped some vegetables.
Victor nodded. That would probably be best and would limit the chance for any invader to react. “What’s the third step?” he asked.
“Individual acknowledgement from you or your father to access any level higher than their normal working level. Given at the time it’s required, not ahead of time. And only given to people you know personally and have worked with for years. Anyone else will have to wait.”
“Do you really think that’s necessary?”
“For now, yes, I do. Until we know more, my priority is keeping you safe. I know this won’t protect you against another full scale attack like the last two, but it should at least slow them down, and it’ll hinder any covert attempts. While you were in the meeting, I tried to go through the video logs of the attack, but they were scrubbed so they have some kind of tech expert who can do that without alerting anyone, or the person they should have alerted is in on it and keeping quiet.”
“And that’s not a side effect of your GHOST technology?” Victor asked. Of course, he already knew it was the attackers who wiped the cameras; Aiko had confirmed that when it happened. But he wanted to see how Nyx would respond. What he really wanted to ask was about what Chameleon had noticed with her, how any recordings that had her in it were altered, but he couldn’t ask that directly without giving away that he had been having her watched.
Nyx shook her head. “No, it only removes me from the footage. It should still exist, it’ll just look like they’re being offed by nothing. In this case, the footage is simply gone, cut from existence.”
“Not… entirely,” Chameleon said slowly. They sighed, then said, “All right, I’ll send you a copy of the files.”
“You scrubbed them? Why?” Nyx asked.
“Don’t get your knickers in a twist now, I had nothing to do with that. But it’s a habit of mine to take a recording of the footage while it’s being recorded whenever something unexpected goes down. Now, I don’t have everything; I don’t have the start of the attack because I didn’t know it was coming and that I had to record. I only have from when I realised I was locked out of the systems.”
“Well, that’s better than nothing, thanks. I’ll go over these later. One thing we know, though, is that board woman was right: they had to have inside help in order to get to the upper floors. If it were just one person, one trained assassin, sure it’s not too hard. But a whole crew?” Nyx shook her head. “You may not want to hear this, but I’m suspicious of those three who came to see you so quickly.”
“What? Why? They’ve been loyal Aegis employees since I was a child!” Victor protested. “All right, so I may not be particularly fond of them and some of their policies, but they wouldn’t do anything to harm me or the company.”
“I don’t know of a motive just yet, but there were some… inconsistencies, shall we say, in the way they were acting. I really need access to their files. I can get them myself, but it’ll be quicker and easier if you could just give them to me.”
Victor sighed and stared at his food, picking at it a little, not really tasting it. “I don’t have the authority,” he admitted. He hated admitting he didn’t have full control over everyone at Aegis, but it was the truth. “Only my father can do that.”
“I’ll get them to you as well then,” Chameleon said. “I can get in and out with a copy of that information without them even noticing. Something that’s apparently beyond a thug,” they said, their tone light and cheerful.
Zara glared at them. “I’m not a thug, and I’m perfectly capable of getting the information, but I need to stay focused here. Let me make one thing clear.” She pointed her fork at them. “I don’t trust you and I don’t like you, but apparently, for some reason, Victor trusts you.”
“He trusts me because we are as good as siblings. You have no idea of the shit the two of us have been through,” Chameleon said, their earlier light tone instantly turning icy.
“So you keep saying-” Nyx started.
“Enough!” Victor cut in before Nyx could bait Chameleon into saying something that he didn’t want Nyx knowing, just as some kind of one-upmanship. In a softer tone, he said, “Chameleon, I would appreciate it if you could get those files for me. I doubt anything will be found, but it will put Nyx’s mind at ease at least.”
Chameleon said nothing for a few moments, then, “Can I have a quiet word with you?”
Victor nodded and slipped off the chair. He led the way into his office but didn’t close the door; he wanted to be able to see what Nyx was doing.
Chameleon pitched their voice low so only Victor’s enhanced hearing could pick it up. “Why are you trusting her so quickly?” they demanded.
“I don’t, not entirely, not even close to how much I trust you. But we need to have a working relationship at least. She’s competent at her job. During the attack, she was calm, precise, and in control. She may be more comfortable working from the shadows, but it’s clear she’s able to handle herself in a direct confrontation as well.” Victor didn’t mention the brief moment of attraction he felt when she was displaying that competence. He has always been drawn to people who are good at what they do and who were not sycophants. Unfortunately, the latter especially excluded the vast number of women he interacted with.
“Did you think that the reason she might have been so calm was because she was behind it?” Chameleon pressed.
“It did occur to me, yes, but I don’t think that’s the case. During the meeting, Aiko said she made no attempt to listen in or otherwise access it, so corporate espionage is unlikely. And during the attack itself, she put herself in harm’s way to protect me on multiple occasions. I don’t know what’s going on with these attacks, but for now, she’s doing her job in keeping me safe.”
“And what have I done these past twelve years? Am I to be replaced now?”
Victor felt his heart sink when Chameleon said these words, and immediately understood where their hostility was coming from. Victor rested a hand on Chameleon’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “Of course not,” he said. “What you and I have is irreplaceable, and nothing, not even this, will ever change our primary mission. We’ll make sure what happened to us, to you, will never happen to anyone else. That’s still our number one goal. We just have to get through this, and I couldn’t do that without you. And, I think, deep down you know that.”
“Do I?” Their voice wasn’t quite as hurt as it was before, but it was still unsure.
“You do. I know you do. You’re my secret weapon.”
“How can I be a secret weapon when she already knows who I am?”
“If your existence leaks, then I’ll know exactly where it came from and it will be dealt with. I give you my word. You are more important to me than a new bodyguard. Get her those files, keep digging around into her handler and my father’s relationship, and keep an eye on things from a distance tonight.”
“She was telling the truth about who she was talking to at least. When she made that call before coming up here, I mean,” Chameleon said, their tone reluctant.
“There, you see? I don’t think she’s being deceptive. At least not about anything important. Come back tomorrow and we’ll see where everything stands.”
We need to do something nice for them later. Reassure them that I could never replace them.
[--I’ll look into it and give you a list to choose from.--]
Chameleon nodded and, taking a deep breath, straightened their shoulders. “All right. I’ll keep checking in throughout the day,” they said before they turned to leave, glaring as they went past Nyx and stepped into the elevator.
It was only after they left that Victor realised they had left their cooking half done.
In the next episode, Victor and Nyx view the security footage and try to find out what actually happened, and whether it is likely to happen again.
Coming Soon
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