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CYBER CORPORATE CONSPIRACY ✰ "EQUASECT" BY T.M. KNIGHT

The bathtub is as good a place as any to watch your life fall apart. Cindy-Kate gazed at her cellphone with over a hundred messages, unfazed, though she really shouldn’t have been. In a strange sense of calmness, she dropped her company phone into the rosewater of the cooled bath. No need for it anymore. 


A minor mistake from her part and a hundred million dollars gone from company accounts. And as the news recounted on the tv playing faintly from the distance of her living room, the money had been going missing over a period of seven months. It was a smoking gun for embezzlement. Hard to commit without one being aware of it whatsoever.


She sank lower into the bath and looked out over the fading twilight of the city from the vantage point of her penthouse. Even underwater, her hard cellphone was still buzzing with messages from her company, EquaSect. That’s right, EquaSect. The global conglomerate dealing with pretty much every industry, but officially a cyber technology corporation. And Cindy-Kate, the senior executive of the cyberware seat. Well, not anymore. 


Now she was just waiting for some form of certain retribution; the other executives organizing a press conference to tear her down, maybe the police coming to her door on criminal charges… it was just a matter of days. Or hours.


She traced her finger over the surface of the water as the phone made ripples underwater. It even started releasing some bubbles. Now that was concerning. She fished out the phone and found it unusually near boiling for just having taken a cool dive. 


These phones had been designed to be practically indestructible— she’d overseen the development personally— so they really shouldn’t be looking like they were about to explode. The phone started beeping softly. Imminently.


She got out of the bath with a splash and quickly walked over to the open bathroom window, tossed it out as far she could, then beheld the small explosion it caused midair. Cindy-Kate stared at the falling flaming shrapnel, open-mouthed. Did someone just try to kill her?


The doorbell to her penthouse rang and she was so startled that she slipped on the wet tiles and fell. Just great. Who the hell was it, journalists, the police, or her assassins?


☯︎☯︎☯︎☯︎☯︎☯︎☯︎☯︎☯︎☯︎☯︎☯︎


Cindy-Kate, better known as ‘Syndicate’ not just for the phonetic similarity of her name to the word, but also for her incredible feat of having created the cyberware syndicate of over 100 technology companies to function under the umbrella of the major conglomerate EquaSect—


Syndicate, now dressed and armed, switched off the TV to cut off any noise and hear her surroundings better. There was a chance someone was already inside. She focused on the monitor in the hallway and surveyed the live security footage of the penthouse. 





She went through a few more rooms, but no one was in sight. The doorbell rang again, this time more drawn out. Syndicate swore under her breath and quickly flipped through the many cameras until she got to the one outside of the front door. To her surprise, it wasn’t anyone of the civil or shadowy forces, but her closest co-worker and friend, Will Von Storm. 


Will stood there with his head hung as he waited with his back against the side wall, dressed in his usual navy blue suit. He must have come straight from the office. The parted curtain style of his dirty blonde hair obscured his eyes from the side in the hazy camera and his arms were folded. He momentarily lifted one hand to pinch the bridge of his sharp nose. 


A wave of overwhelming relief washed over her, but was quickly contrasted with guilt that warred with it. A yin and yang of an emotional circle that was heart. How could she face him like this?


Syndicate went down the spiral staircase to the lower floor and farther on to the front door. Will looked down to her when the door swung open. Bright as he was to see her usually, tonight the grief was plain in his storm blue eyes. It was a pain that immediately got through to her almost eerie calm as she’d gone about her evening, a living embodiment of what her life had become.


“Syn, please tell me that—“ Will started, but Cindy-Kate ran into his arms and clutched him tightly. 


“Will,” she managed through a choked sob, but she couldn’t continue anything.


“You don’t have to say anything Syn, I know you’re innocent. You can trust me, you can trust me,” Will consoled her as she sobbed and rested his chin atop her head. He kept telling her that she could trust him… and that he trusted her. She quickly calmed the moment he said that.


“I know Will,” her distress quelled, she spoke with a steadier voice. Syndicate wiped the last tear away from her cheek and let out a semi-laugh. “Without you, I’d have never survived in EquaSect.” 


Will Von Storm was the son of the chairman of EquaSect, though his position as the chief executive in the corporation was maintained all by his own skill. She greatly respected him, once as a mentor, now as an equal. Though they had gotten closer this past year, he was the last person she’d expected to turn up at her door.


She ushered him inside, struck with fear after she’d forgotten and let her guard down out in the open when she should have been wary. Will picked up on her tension, since he looked over his broad shoulder at the entry hall she stared down before she shut the door.


“Everything okay?” Will asked. Syndicate tucked her dark hair behind her ears and started leading him towards the ground floor living room.


“You’re not gonna like this…” She recounted to him the events of the evening. Will stared at her in shock. Then he set his square jaw and got up from the couch with a dark look in his eyes.


“Where are you going?” She stood up and went up to him, but he was already buttoning up the jacket of his navy blue suit and turning to walk out of the plush living room.


He spoke to her over his shoulder as he headed toward the balcony. “Someone tried to kill you Syn, where do you think I’m going?” The light fell over the heights of his cheekbone that cast shadows over the hollow of his cheek. “I’m gonna make a call. Hold on.”


Syndicate’s steps trailed to a slower pace. Out of everything she had to be afraid of, she was most afraid of what Will’s call would do. Though it was hopeless that he could do anything about the embezzlement situation within the company, even as the son of EquaSect’s chairman, he had a reach that far extended the realm of business. 


But she didn’t want him to mobilize anything for her sake. Powerful as one is, all of it can disappear overnight. She was the prime example of this. Yesterday, she was Syndicate in all of her reputation and accomplishments. Today, she was Cindy-Kate, probably soon without a penny to her name too after the situation ran its course.


She resolved not to have Will interfere with what was happening right now, that it was wise they bide their time more, as she had been throughout this evening until it all went awry, and set out to open the balcony door. But when she did, Will was gone. 


She walked further down the stretch of the terrace behind the carved stone statues but still no sign of him. What on Earth?


The glass doors at the furthest point of the terrace were open; white curtains lightly billowed outwards onto the stone terrace. Then, a deep shout. Will’s. Cindy-Kate ran forward towards the open door. It led to the jacuzzi room. And there under the glass dome, Will was locked in a struggle with a man clad in black. Will soon overwhelmed him with his large build and shoved the man’s head down in the small pool.


Syndicate could only watch the man slow his thrashes as Will, kneeling on the floor, held his head underwater— until he went limp. Will crashed to the side and slid away from the dead man. He reached a pillar behind his back that prevented him from going further. 


Syndicate stood staring at the scene, motionless. Will looked at her in muted silence. 


“I… killed him, Cindy-Kate.” He slowly lifted himself up off the floor with a hand on the pillar behind him. “He’s dead.”


Syndicate went towards the dead man. That calmness was back over her, like a piece of wool over her senses. Everything was under control, everything was under her control. 


She lifted the man out of the water by the shoulders and turned him around. He was Japanese. He wore a black vest, to which a large knife was strapped in. “Will… you saved my life.” She looked up at Will as she knelt next to the assassin.


Will nodded grimly. His face was pale. He tipped his head back against the pillar and closed his eyes. “God forgive me, for I’ve killed a man.” 


Syndicate rose from her position and took the opposite pillar to Will’s to lean against. She’d had to find a solution to a lot of difficult situations before, but having to think of how to get rid of a dead body wasn’t in her list of enterprising skills. That was far beyond her. She didn’t even know what to say to Will firstly.


Will let out a long breath and tilted his head down towards her from across the room. “Don’t worry about the body,” he echoed her thoughts. “For now, we need to get you out of here. You’re coming back to my estate.”


“Will…”


“I know what you’re going to say. That I shouldn’t get involved. Well Syn…” Will held up his hand in front of him, the same one he’d used to hold the man’s head underwater. “I’m already involved.” He curled his fingers inwards and held his fist against his sternum. “And I’m glad for it.” He took a breath, as if he were deliberating his next words. “I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you…” His eyes were low as he swept his gaze to the side in contemplation.


Syndicate regarded him distantly. This was all wrong. Will was never supposed to get attached. 


“My name. William. It means protector in German.” Will walked towards her and she towards him. They met next to the dead assassin. Will looked down at the man with a soul’s glance, then grabbed her shoulders. “And that’s exactly what I’ll do. I’ll protect you, Cindy-Kate.”


But that was the one thing she’d forgotten for so many years. Cindy-Kate was no more. Even if she wanted to, she couldn’t go back to her. She was Syndicate forevermore now. To break Will’s heart would be to tell him so. So she stayed quiet, accepted his trust, and placed it by the dagger next to her heart. There was no turning back now. 


She left the room with Will to head out of her penthouse and to the Von Storms estate in the outskirts of the city.



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☆ Dаlidа ☆

☆ Dаlidа ☆'s profile picture

I read it all, ur stories are soo interesing & ur writing style!!


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Protector in german is actually 'Beschützer' but let's js pretend it's william

by ☆ Dаlidа ☆; ; Report

I'm so happy you think so! Tbh I'm also from the new generation and I think that there's no reason for stories to be dull and boring, because not even I have the capability to stay focused on it if it doesn't engage me. Glad to see the wish reaches!

I read that William is derived from Wilhelm which is what I think means protector? Perhaps I'll specify it in the text maybe the origin of his name for better clarity. Thanks for pointing it out, need natives to check these things because a lot of the times I write about peoples I'm not familiar with.

by T.M. KNIGHT; ; Report

I agree! And i checked about the name, its really old german thats why i didn't recognize it so dw ops

by ☆ Dаlidа ☆; ; Report