Chapter 7
Chapter 7 — Forward Addresses and Other Lies
Elara traces the anonymous warning email through layered proxies over six days, narrowing the origin to Cross's internal network while maintaining her cover. She meets Kael at his Manhattan apartment to share findings, where their physical and emotional intimacy deepens. Kael reveals that Alan Mercer, a state senator overseeing gaming and entertainment regulations, has a financial relationship with Cross's promotion. Elara discovers the email originated from Renee DuVall's IP address, suggesting DuVall may be an ally rather than a threat. The chapter ends when Elara finds a second message—this time physical, slipped under her studio door—noting that Cross has added Senator Mercer to the private event guest list for the next show.
Six days after the second Cross event, I was still tracing the email.
Three proxies. Layered routing. Whoever sent the five-word warning—BACK OFF CROSS OR DISAPPEAR—knew enough about digital hygiene to make my life difficult. Not impossible. Difficult. There's a difference, and the difference is usually about forty hours of sleepless work and three pots of coffee that would kill a smaller mammal.
I sat in the van outside a coworking space in Hoboken, bouncing my signal through a chain of compromised servers that would make any federal investigator weep with professional jealousy. My laptop screen glowed against the dashboard like a small, vindictive sun. The proxy trail led through Stockholm, then Singapore, then back to a residential node in Newark that had been dead for two years but somehow maintained an active connection.
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