Chapter 45 - The Digital Raid
Krieger Dynamics operated out of an unmarked, brutalist concrete building in Berlin's industrial district. It was designed to look like a forgotten warehouse, completely invisible to the casual observer, but our rapid intelligence sweep revealed it was a heavily fortified cyber-warfare hub. They were mercenaries, paid by unnamed rivals terrified of Rose & Wren’s unstoppable expansion.
We didn't call the authorities or file a legal injunction. When someone attacks my empire, I respond with overwhelming, disproportionate force.
Julian mobilized our private, elite corporate security team—highly trained operatives who operated strictly in the gray areas of international law. We arrived at the Krieger facility just after midnight, the rain slicing through the cold German air.
"The cyber attack on our servers is still active, but our firewalls are holding for now," Julian reported, standing beside me in the shadows of the alleyway, monitoring his tactical tablet. "The hostile code is being broadcast from a localized mainframe on the third floor of that building."
"Take it down," I commanded softly.
Our security team moved with terrifying precision. They breached the heavy steel doors using a focused thermal charge that melted the biometric locks in seconds. Julian and I followed them into the dark, humming facility.
We bypassed the minimal physical security with ease, moving silently up the concrete stairwells. When we breached the main server room on the third floor, the sight was staggering. Rows of advanced supercomputers were aggressively churning out the malicious code attacking Rose & Wren’s global network.
At the center of the room sat the lead hacker, a pale, terrified man who desperately tried to wipe his terminal as our security team secured the perimeter.
"Step away from the console," I said, walking slowly into the glowing blue light of the server room.
The hacker froze, raising his hands in absolute surrender.
Julian stepped forward, plugging a heavily encrypted, proprietary hard drive directly into the Krieger mainframe. "I am initiating a counter-virus," Julian announced, his fingers flying across the console. "I’m not just stopping their attack. I am reverse-engineering the malware and sending it back to its source."
I looked at the terrified hacker. "Who paid you to attack my infrastructure?"
"I don't know!" the man stammered, shaking violently. "It was a blind contract! Paid in untraceable cryptocurrency through a Swiss proxy!"
"Julian," I said, my voice completely devoid of mercy. "Burn it all."
Julian hit the final execute command. The Krieger mainframe screamed as Julian’s counter-virus violently wiped their entire operating system, permanently bricking millions of euros worth of hardware and erasing their digital presence from the internet. The cyber assault on Rose & Wren instantly ceased.
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"The attack is neutralized," Julian confirmed, pulling his drive from the dead console.
"Good," I said, turning my back on the ruined mercenary hub. "Let this be a message to whoever hired them. We don't just defend our walls. We destroy the people who try to climb them."
