Jane's POV

I sat quietly in my office, and watched the encrypted message display on my laptop screen. The words were clear, were sharp, and were so cold.


"You caught Tom & Co. But The Ghost is still out there. And he is not alone. He's part of something bigger. Something you can't imagine."

My heart beat faster and closed the laptop and leaned back in my chair, the room felt too quiet now.

IronWall's team was down the hall, still running updates and scans, however I couldn't shake the feeling that something was coming and it would be something worse.


That was when I made the decision.

I got up, grabbed my coat, and headed for the prison.


I walked through the gates of the prison. The air was heavy, and the walls were cold.

The Guards walked beside me, and I held a file in my hand. It had names, records, and an idea, one that might sound crazy to others, but I knew what I was doing.

I was here to talk to Tom.

After everything he did, hacking my company, stealing data, trying to break me, I was still here to offer him a deal. It was not revenge, it was not a punishment, it was a real deal.

A guard opened a thick metal door and inside, Tom sat behind a table. He looked up and when he saw me, there was surprise in his eyes, and then confusion, and finally, a small smile.

'Well, if it isn't the queen herself," he said 'Come to gloat?"

I sat down across from him and I stayed calm. 'No! I am here to talk about business."

He raised an eyebrow. 'Business? In prison?"

'I need your skills," I said 'And your team's."

He laughed hard. 'You are joking, right?"

'I'm not. You are good, I mean too good. I could use someone like you to build something stronger than anything we have ever had. I want to rebuild my company's data wall, stronger than before. And you will help me do it."

Tom leaned forward. 'What's the catch?"

'You will be under house arrest. I mean all of you and my people will watch you every second. You will get paid, but not much and there won't be access to outside networks. You work for me and you answer to me."

He studied my face. 'Why trust me?"

I met his gaze. 'I don't. But I am willing to take a risk, because I need results, not promises."

He leaned back, thinking. 'And if I say no?"

'Then you stay here, forever. With nothing but four walls and a metal bed."

He smirked, 'You are scarier than I thought."

'I'm smarter than you thought."

After a long pause, he nodded slowly. 'Alright. Deal."

Two Weeks Later

Tom and his crew were moved to a secure house in the outskirts of the city. Guards were posted outside and cameras were everywhere.

Every room was monitored and IronWall ran full surveillance, and I got reports every hour.

The hackers were given workstations, but no internet access beyond what's controlled. They began working almost immediately and watched them through a one-way mirror.

Tom typed quickly, he muttered commands and his fingers flew across the keyboard like a piano player.

'Get the protocol filters up," he told his team. 'Don't just patch holes, rebuild the foundation."

One of them nodded, 'We will need a fresh encryption system."

'Already on it," another guy replied.

They are fast, focused and like they never got caught.

I walked into the room. 'Progress?"

Tom looked up. 'Your old wall was strong, but too obvious. We are building something new, quiet and invisible.

A fortress no one will see coming."

'Greatd," I said, 'Keep going." I added.

Each day, they rebuilt and more, layer by layer, new firewalls and fake data traps. Internal scanners that spot any suspicious behavior.

My CTO, Mikal, monitors their work closely. He was against the deal at first, but now, even he seemed impressed.

'They know things we don't," he said one night. 'They are criminals, yes. But they are geniuses."

'And now they work for us," I replied.

One Week Later

The new system was nearly completed. They call it ,"GhostWall." It was silent and deadly and no outsider could enter without alerting twenty hidden alarms.

Tom presented it to me in the war room.

'Your enemies won't even know where the doors are anymore," he said. 'And if they try to knock? We will knock back harder."

I nodded, I was impressed. 'How do I know you didn't leave a backdoor for yourself?"

He smiled. 'You will just have to keep watching me. Like I said, risk and reward."

I walked back to my office, the city lights shone through the windows. My company was stronger after.

But something still felt off.

That night, I got a message. It came in as a glitch, just displayed on my screen. I leaned closer.

One word appears:

"Watching." Then it disappeared

I froze.

Was it Tom? Someone else? Another hacker?

I called Mikal. 'Check the system! Now."

He sounded tense. 'We are on it. But Jane, that didn't come from inside. That came from somewhere else."

My stomach dropped.

Outside the window, the city seemed quiet. But I knew better. We won the battle.

But the war?

It's far from over.



Tom's POV

I sat by the window. The sky was gray, the world outside felt far away. We were not in prison anymore, but we were not free. This was a big house, full of cameras and the police call it 'house arrest." But I call it a second chance.

Jane gave us that chance.

I looked around at my team, Ravi, Hex and Shadow. We used to work in the shadows. We took money, we vanished. But now, we are working for someone real, someone smart, someone like Jane.

Ravi taps his laptop. 'The system's still full of holes," she said

'We will fix it," I said. 'We didn't mess this up."

We woke up early and we slept late and every day, we built something new. Jane sent her team to help us and they know the company, but we knew the code.

At first, I didn't trust them and they didn't trust us either. But slowly, that changed and we talked, we shared and we worked like one machine.

We rebuilt Jane's firewall, not the old kind. This one was alive, it learnt, it moved and . It fought back.

Hex sets up the new server. 'Fastest thing I have ever built," he said and grinned.

'Faster than the one we used to hack her?" I asked

'Ten times faster."

Jane visited and watched everything, she asked questions, she listened and she understood the code like she understood people.

One night, we finished testing the new wall. runs a final check. 'It works," she says. 'Nothing gets in. Nothing gets out. Unless Jane wants it."

We cheered, and it felt good. For the first time in years, I felt proud of something we built.

Then, the screen flickered and a message popped up.

Hello again.

Hex froze. 'What the hell?"

Another line appears:

'You can't protect her. Not from me"

I stepped forward and my hands were cold. 'It's the Ghost," I whispered

He's still out there.

'No," Shadow said. 'He is gone. He escaped during the raid, remember? He's just bluffing."

But I knew better.

'He was watching us," I said 'Even now."

Jane stormed in, holding her phone. 'Did you see the message?"

'Yes," I responded.

She looked straight at me. 'Can we trace it?"

'We can try," I said. 'But he was good."

We started working again, All night. No breaks.

Hours later, we found it. A trace, tiny, but real. The Ghost made a mistake, it was one wrong bounce.

Nico jumped up. 'We have got him!"

'Location?" Jane asked

'An old university server. Germany."

Jane made a call and we listened.

Two days later, the news broke

'International hacker was caught hiding inside an abandoned server node. Connection confirmed to recent cyber attack case"

It was him. The Ghost.

Jane turned to us. 'It is over."

I nodded. 'Now we build something even better."