The moment Peter's footsteps faded beyond the glass corridor, Caro moved instantly, fingers already trembling as she reopened the terminal in silence that felt dangerously alive. The system still carried faint traces of what she had been doing, residual access shadows that had not fully cleared and every second she hesitated increased the risk of exposure. Her eyes darted toward the corridor once, then twice, before she forced herself back into the interface, pulling up the last incomplete corruption chain that had been leaking into external reporting pipelines. If even one fragment escaped outside compliance boundaries, the board leak would no longer remain internal. It would become public.
A soft system warning blinked at the edge of the screen.
EXTERNAL SYNC ATTEMPT DETECTED.
