Kat’s pupil flicked upward, bringing up another page of information on her smartpanel. The words flowed past as she analyzed the data, pausing here and there to read the notes the Whippoorwill had appended to the document. A blink of her eye brought up another series of tables, each showing expenditures from a variety of corporate accounts.

A red light flickered in the corner of Kat’s vision, interrupting her scrolling. She focused her gaze on the far right of the smartpanel, opening a drop down menu before selecting an icon that resembled a large projector screen.

The room’s lights dimmed as a panel slid to the side revealing a large smartglass display. Seconds after it was revealed, it flickered to life, showing Belle Donnst in a board room that looked similar to the one Kat was sitting in. Next to the woman sat a trio of cowed looking assistants and analysts, all of their gazes fixed on smartglass tablets in front of them.

“Hello Miss Debs, Miss Green,” Belle’s voice was as pleasant as ever on the surface, but Kat could see hints of irritability on the other woman’s face as she glanced at her cowering assistants. “I hope the two of you are doing well this afternoon.”

“I’m doing fine, how are you, Miss Donnst?” Kat asked politely.

“Belle, please,” the other woman replied primly. “Miss Donnst is my mother. Her and I haven’t been on speaking terms since I bought out her equity in Ike Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Grocorp, and had her transferred to the Minneapolis Bovine R&D Branch.”

“Hi Belle,” Whippoorwill said from beside Kat waving at the older shareholder. “Also what’s this about a Bovine R&D Branch in Minneapolis? I thought that Grocorp was keeping most of its research facilities closer to Chiwaukee. As far as I could remember, Minneapolis was mostly production and media management.”

“Oh,” Belle responded, her voice sacchrine. “You wouldn’t have heard of it. The Minneapolis branch is just mother, one assistant and a barn with eight sickly cows. She was quite cross when she found out that I had exiled her there.”

Kat and Whippoorwill shared a furtive look while Donnst beamed happily. She raised her eyebrows and Whip shrugged helplessly. Just Belle being Belle.

“Anyway,” Kat said, turning her gaze back to the smartglass and forcing a smile. “I’m sure that both of us have more pressing concerns than family affairs. I know you wanted to talk about the attack on my penthouse, and there have certainly been developments on our end in that investigation.”

“Good,” Belle replied, her happy expression freezing on her face. “My efforts have been stonewalled through formal channels. It’s clear that someone is looking to stop us from finding out what happened, and my more clandestine searches have been running into another problem.”

“It seems that every two bit samurai with their first bit of cyberware installed has converged on Chiwaukee and is plotting against us,” she continued sourly. “My informants have gathered information on dozens of plots that involve you, the Haupt family or me, but none of them that actually pertain to the attack on your residence.”

“The 3445 has been mopping the floor with infiltration efforts,” Kad said, nodding. “It seems like every week someone tries something new. So far we’ve had magical concealment, surgically modified faces, tunneling, airdropping, and at least a couple of groups that have tried the more classic ‘jumping the barrier, running really fast and hoping for the best.”

“Nothing has succeeded I trust?” Belle asked.

Kat shook her head, a grim smile spreading across her face as she responded.

“No. We’ve kept a lot of the high end sensor and security tech extracted from the stallesp wreck secret. Right now, people outside of this building don’t even know what we’re scanning for, let alone the specifications for how we are doing it. Any attempt to infiltrate the compound needs to first pass through a security net that no one on Earth knows how to defeat. I’m sure some of the stallesp survivors are feeding information to their allies, but it will be a while before our enemies even know what they’re dealing with.”

“Good,” Belle replied. “I’m having enough trouble keeping Ricket and Daniels out of our hair. Every other meeting they’re actively complaining that you are ‘hoarding’ the stallesp technology, and that the two of us can’t even keep it safe from outside actors. The last thing I need is for one of those outside actors to actually make it into the facility, even if they don’t manage to leave with anything of value.”

Once again, Kat and Whip shared a glance. This time, the look on Whippoorwill’s face was sober, bordering on grave. Kat gave her a nod, and the other woman sucked in a quick breath before speaking up.

“We think Daniels is up to something.” The words came tumbling out of Whip’s mouth in a hurried mess, and almost immediately her face flushed red with stress and embarrassment. Kat reached out under the table and gripped her hand, giving it a quick squeeze to reassure her.

“Oh?” Belle said, raising a single well-manicured eyebrow. “I would be more surprised if he weren’t up to something, but I take it that the two of you have found something?”

“You said that Daniels and Ricket were making claims that our security wasn’t good enough? Whippoorwill asked, her voice slower and more measured. Belle nodded wordlessly.

“We were able to track the account used to pay the samurai that attacked Kat’s penthouse back to a slush fund used by Northstar Lumber and Dairy, LLC,” she continued, drawing a frown from Belle.

The other woman leaned back, forehead creasing slightly in thought.

“I immediately thought of Daniels at that point,” Kat said, squeezing Whip’s hand under the table a second time. “But at the same time, all we had was a bank transfer. It could have been someone setting him up or using Blake as cover. After all, it’s well known that he’s one of our primary rivals. That’s why Whip and I did a run to Northstar.”

“Oh dear,” Belle sighed. “You’re a shareholder now, Miss Debs. You have people for that sort of thing. It’s unbecoming for a young lady to get her hands dirty without any plausible deniability. Please at least tell me that you had a fall person lined up.?”

Kat winced.

“There wasn’t time,” she hedged. “As soon as Whip found the connection to Northstar we altered my travel plans so that I could visit a mining facility in Hancock to inspect one of the newer resonance sensors and automated mining rigs that we’d reverse engineered from the stallesp archives. The two of us made a stop along the way and managed to get a download of their archives without raising any alarms. Daniels might discover a couple busted locks in a month or so, but nothing to actually betray that his facility was compromised.”

“Next time do be careful Miss Debs,” Belle responded with a slight frown. “I know that fast and loose served you well as an independent actor, but that’s not how things are done for corporate representatives. There are rules, and one of the most important rules is to have just enough distance between yourself and those who are engaging in skullduggery that no one can lodge a formal complaint while maintaining enough proximity that everyone knows what you’re capable of. It’s a delicate balance Miss Debs, but one I am sure you’ll be able to learn given time.”

Kat nodded, but her eyes were unrepentant as she replied. “We were able to get complete financial records for Northstar going back years. Whip hasn’t finished going through all the data we pulled, but she managed to find some financing information for at least a portion of Daniels’ intelligence operations.”

“Indeed,” Belle said, perking up. “Did you manage to uncover any leads? I’m sick of spinning my wheels, knowing that something is going on around me without having the first idea of how to intervene.”

“I think so,” Whippoorwill replied, sending a summary of the data they’d uncovered to Belle with a blink. “Blake Daniels spent a considerable amount of money trying to slip spies into all of the new shareholders’ operations. It look like he’s had limited success with you and Haupt-”

“Naturally,” Belle interrupted, a hint of smugness to her voice. “No defense is impenetrable, but I have been handling corporate security for both of my employers for some time. I have secondary and tertiary systems for everything, and my employees know the penalty for disloyalty. I try to hire smart individuals. They’re bright enough to know better than to cross me.”

“And Mr. Haupt has Davis,” she continued, a hint of bitterness in her voice. “I think every executive tried to hire him away from Jasper, but it was never about the money for him. He might be a bit older, but he’s the best security professional that money can’t buy.”

“Unfortunately, Kat wasn’t as well established as you or Haupt,” Whip said. “She needed to hire a lot of people and quickly. Jasper and you helped, but at a certain point we ran out of trustworthy recommendations and had to hire on the open market. Apparently, Daniels took advantage of that and managed to slip someone into the human resources division for Kat’s household. Nothing that can touch us here at the lab, but it sure looks like they managed to put a number of corruptible employees into important slots.”

“The good news,” Kat continued as soon as Whippoorwill finished, “is that we were able to figure out the identity of Daniels’ mole. Everyone is working under codenames, but payments began to the first spy a couple of days after I hired Allison Runde. Whip did some double checking and even though Allison doesn’t have her credits from Daniels deposited directly into her personal account, she did transfer over about five thousand a couple of days before the attack on the penthouse. After we were able to link the accounts, it was just a matter of sending someone to question her. It’s only a matter of time before we’re able to start linking names and faces to the code names in the data dump. Then we can really start to dismantle Blake’s operation.”

“It’s confirmed all but confirmed that he was behind the attack on your house then?” Belle asked, her voice taking on a thoughtful note. Kat nodded as the older woman kept speaking.

“We might be able to turn this against him then. Daniels might be the hatchetman, but I’d put every last credit I own on the line that Shareholder Ricket is the one actually behind all of this. He was just as opposed to the three of us acquiring equity as Daniels, but he can actually keep his mouth shut for more than ten minutes rather than lunging for our throats like a rabid dog.”

“I’ll let you know if we find any connections to him,” Kat said, her head bobbing in a nod.

“You won’t,” Belle replied, waving a hand dismissively before setting her hand on the table in front of her and drumming her fingers against the synthetic material. “Richard is the leader of the old guard. He might have told Daniels what to do, but there won’t be any link beyond an unrecorded face to face meeting between the two of them.”

“Of course,” she stopped speaking for a moment, eyes distant as she fell deep into thought. “It wouldn’t be surprising if Ricket were the one to bring up the attack on your penthouse. He’s a good enough actor that he could spin it like he was coming from a place of concern about your personal safety. From there, it would only be natural for the company to remove you from the stallesp security project in order to ‘remove the target’ from your back.”

“Are you sure I can’t just kill him?” Kat asked hopefully. “It sure would be a lot easier than trying to create enough of a paper trail to justify some sort of arbitration claim against him that likely wouldn’t do anything in the long run.”

Belle smiled, an expression devoid of any warmth.

“It’s an option, but one we will keep on the back burner,” Belle responded. “I must say, I will likely be a more receptive audience for your more murderous pitches when our subcommittee meetings hit hour three. If you ask me then, I might actually give you the go ahead out of frustration.”

“Can I at least present Daniels with a bill for the damage he did?” Kat questioned sourly. “The idea of letting the asshole off with nothing more than a glower rubs me the wrong way.”

Belle pursed her lips together for a second. Then, she nodded once decisively before responding.

“I was originally going to suggest arbitration, but publicly presenting him with an invoice might be even better. This is all a power play on their part to try and rip the lab from your sphere of control by showing that you ‘can’t even keep yourself safe.’ What better way to counter their move by showing that you have enough competence to track the leak down while also exposing Daniels as a bumbling fool.”

“That sounds like a plan to me,” Kat said with an icy smile. “Now I guess it's just a question of what secrets Heather can manage to pull out of Allison. Hopefully enough to unravel this entire tapestry.”

“About that Miss Debs,” Belle suggested sweetly. “If the girl gives you any trouble, I can lend you some of my interrogation experts. You know what I always say, questioning a reluctant witness can be pulling teeth. Specifically in that if you are doing it right, your target ends the session without any teeth.”

An hour later, Whippoorwill and Kat were walking into the on-site hospital. Without waiting to ask directions, Kat led Whip and her security detail, one ordinary officer and one 3445 specialist wearing an unobtrusive mechanical exoskeleton, to the two dozen rooms reserved for convalescence. She nodded to the 3445 guard in full APEX armor posted outside Emma’s door, their armor’s actuators whirring as they nodded back, and stepped inside.

Jasper looked up from where he was sitting at the side of Emma’s bed. Iris stood next to him with one hand on his shoulder, and Davis had found a spot in the corner of the room where he could monitor all traffic in and out.

“Hey,” Kat said, walking inside to give Whippoorwill room to crowd in as well. “How is everyone doing?

“Fine-” Jasper began only for Emma to cut him off.

“Get me out of here Kat. The doctors did a good job. I’m basically better, but they keep saying that they want to keep me here for monitoring. I’m going absolutely crazy.”

“You’re not better yet,” Jasper replied with a roll of his eyes. “You’ve already dozed off while talking to me twice. Listen to your doctors Emma.”

“That’s just because of the pills they’re putting in me,” Emma quipped back. “Everything is all sparkly and I feel like I’m laying on a cloud. I’m more than ready to dive back into work.”

Kat glanced to the side, sharing a quick smile with Whippoorwill.

“Don’t push it Emma,” she said gently, walking over to the side of the hospital bed. “I’ve tried to force myself out of bed too early when I’ve been injured, and it’s never ended well. Let the doctors do their work. You’ll be up and causing trouble in no time.”

Davis nodded his approval from the corner, and Kat shot him a quick smile. There was no doubt in her mind that the older man had suffered more than his share of broken bones and bullet wounds. As unpleasant as forced inactivity was, without magic it was often the only way to recover.

“Mom says that you should get better soon so that you can take care of Hanz by the way.” Kat sat down across from Jasper. “I think he’s a bit much for her actually. What are you feeding him anyway? I swear to God that mutt is ten percent bigger every time I see him.”

“He’s a growing boy,” Emma huffed back. “I have to make sure he gets enough nutrients. Plus, if I don’t feed him enough he’ll just sit at the foot of my bed and whine until I refill his bowl. It’s tragic really.”

Whippoorwill sat down next to Kat, waving quickly at Jasper, Davis and Iris before smiling at Emma. The injured woman’s hair was disheveled and partially shaved where surgeons had needed to operate in order to remove shrapnel, but other than that she seemed energetic and in good spirits.

“I see that getting blown up can’t dampen your spirits,” Whip remarked. “Still, it’s good to see that you’re doing better. You looked pretty rough when we pulled you out of the high rise.”

“It wasn’t my favorite experience,” Emma said with a giggle, “but so long as your date went well and we have some sort of plan to get even, I’ll live.”

“Date?” Jasper asked, raising a single eyebrow. Behind him, Kat thought she saw a ghost of a smile flicker across Davis’ face as Whippoorwill blushed so deeply that her cheeks matched her hair.

“The date was perfect,” Kat replied, rolling her eyes at the inquisitive looks on both Jasper and Iris’ faces. “Having to rescue you from a burning building wasn’t how I imagined ending it, but it did make the night a lot more dramatic.”

“Kat was very dashing,” Whippoorwill agreed, a slight tremor in her voice as she looked studiously down at her hands.

“Great,” Emma said cheerfully, her exuberance marred by a wince as she tweaked one of her injuries. “It’s good to know that even while getting blown up by thugs, I managed to make your evening a memorable one. Now give me all the details. I need to know everything.”