The rain began to beat harder against the office window, a steady, gray sheet over the Manhattan skyline.

I looked down at my phone again, recalling the encrypted file that had just finished downloading.

The mystery woman on the phone had said these files would stop Samantha.

“Daniel, can we open this here?” I asked, pointing to the download icon.

He nodded and guided me to the desk, pulling up a secure terminal on his laptop.

I plugged my phone into the USB port.

The screen flickered, and a series of folders appeared on the monitor.

They weren’t public relations documents.

They were corporate bank ledgers, tax filings, and wire transfer receipts from Hayes Enterprises.

I stared at the rows of numbers, my eyes straining in the dim light.

“What are we looking at?” Mia asked, leaning over my shoulder.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “These are corporate accounts, but the formatting is strange.”

Daniel squinted at the screen, pointing to a column of figures.

“Look at the destination accounts,” Daniel said. “These transfers aren’t going to vendors or partners.”