Chapter 22. Resistance and Resilience

Harper arrived before first light.

The vaulted Ledger briefing room hummed with quiet anticipation, its floor lit in amber lines from hidden LEDs. Screens awaited activation, and the air felt tense, brittle—like glass stretched too thin. At the far end, Knox stood with his back to the tall windows, his silhouette sharp against the faint spill of morning across the city skyline. When he turned, the nod he gave her was spare but layered: warning, readiness, faith.

She moved to the head of the table. Her seat now. No hesitation.

The projector flicked to life.

Across the long wall, the dashboard of her Compliance Initiative appeared—corrupted. Red alerts lit up in clusters, blinking over southern Africa and eastern Asia. Compliance scores plummeted. Funds flagged. Entire nodes destabilized.

Gasps were quiet but visible.

A board elder—Gertrude Nye, one of Harper’s hard-won allies during the Victor Lane expulsion—tilted her glasses down her nose.