The heavy, chaotic background noise of Capitol Hill echoed through the speaker.
"Russo," Alden barked, his gravelly voice tight with barely suppressed rage. "Half of New York just went dark, and the Department of Homeland Security is currently tearing the Pentagon apart trying to figure out if it's a state-sponsored attack. Tell me you aren't involved in this."
"I'm not the cause, Senator," Ryan said smoothly, his voice a low, immovable anchor against the politician's panic. "But I have the people who did it."
The background noise on Alden's end abruptly muffled, as if the Senator had stepped into a soundproof hallway.
"Explain," Alden demanded.
"Aegis Global," Ryan stated, dropping the name with lethal precision. "A shadow conglomerate based in Geneva. They are the financial architects behind the legacy tech monopolies you despise. They launched a targeted SCADA breach against the Manhattan grid to intimidate my company and protect their failing assets."
