Jason's eyes scanned the chat logs in silence.
The traitor wasn't just anyone—it was Trevor Lee, a PulseCast developer from the early days. Bright, ambitious, and always just a little too eager.
Naomi stared at the screen over his shoulder. "I can't believe this. Trevor?"
Jason nodded grimly. "He had root access for the beta testing servers. If anyone could copy our code and make it look suspicious... it's him."
She sat back, exhaling hard. "You trusted him."
"I did," Jason said. "And that's on me."
---
Jason didn't waste time.
He called an emergency meeting at PulseCast HQ via secure line. The leadership team joined remotely—Amy from New York, Leo from San Francisco, Rafi from Tel Aviv.
Jason laid it out, clear and cold.
"We've been hit. And not from the outside."
Leo jumped in. "I've already isolated the commits Trevor accessed. He cloned the whole backend three weeks ago and scrubbed the logs—except I left a shadow tag on the master branch. He didn't know."
Amy said, "We need to sue first. Get ahead of it. File suit against Trevor for breach of contract and corporate espionage—publicly."
Jason's voice was steel. "Do it. By tomorrow morning."
---
The press conference was electric.
Flanked by PulseCast's general counsel and Naomi, Jason faced a sea of reporters.
"The allegations from VistaStream are baseless," Jason said. "Our intellectual property is original and defensible. In fact, we have evidence of corporate espionage carried out by a former employee now linked to a VistaStream-affiliated shell company."
Gasps. Murmurs. Cameras flashed.
"This isn't a story about stolen code," Jason continued. "This is a story about old giants afraid of evolution. PulseCast is the future, and we won't be bullied into silence."
---
The tide shifted quickly.
By noon, news broke of Trevor's offshore payments. Leaked documents showed he'd been paid through a consultancy in the Cayman Islands—traced to a shell firm owned by a VC group heavily invested in VistaStream.
Reddit lit up. So did Twitter.
> "#VistaGate"
"Jason Nash just flipped the script."
"This guy is untouchable."
VistaStream stock dropped 4% in a day.
And Jason?
His follower count exploded.
---
Later that night, Jason stood alone on the PulseCast balcony in Dubai, staring out over the marina. The city sparkled, but he was silent.
Naomi joined him with two glasses of whiskey. "You were brilliant today."
He nodded, accepting the drink. "We survived the ambush."
"But?"
Jason sipped, eyes narrowing. "This won't be the last one."
Naomi looked up at him. "Then we make them regret ever aiming at us."
Jason smirked.
"Let's show them what rebirth really means."