Chaos erupted at JPMorgan headquarters early Friday morning. Key merger data had leaked to financial media, and the stock price plummeted 15% within half an hour of opening. Alice Howard stood before the trading floor monitors, her tracing the news headline: "Insider Accuses JPMorgan of Falsifying Earnings; Executives Involved Include Mark Stanton." She knew this was the result of her and Sarah anonymously releasing the wiretap evidence overnight—but Mark's counterattack would be fiercer than expected.
Roars emanated from Mark's office. When Alice pushed the door open, he was smashing a coffee cup: "Alice, you did this." His hand clamped around her throat, tight enough to choke, yet he released her abruptly just as he neared: "Or… that lunatic Black." Alice feigned terror and stepped back, the pendant of her necklace suddenly flashing red—a camera Sarah had planted, recording his rage. She stumbled into his arms, tears glistening: "Mark, I only want to help you… tonight, I have a plan."
The rain turned to hail by evening. Alice headed to Ryan's tech company headquarters. In the cold glow of the underground lab, Ryan was calibrating quantum encryption equipment; the eagle tattoo on his wrist gleamed like metal. "Operation Blood Eagle is ahead of schedule, Ms. Howard." He spun the screen to reveal a chilling simulation of the merger's collapse, "The board needs a scapegoat, and you hold Mark's fatal evidence." Alice plugged an encrypted USB into the device, and data streams spread across the screen like blood: "I don't just want to take him down—I want to destroy the entire board." Ryan suddenly closed in, his gripping her jaw: "You want more than revenge… don't you?"
Passion ignited on the lab's metal table, Ryan's aggression clashing with Alice's yielding in a dangerous tension. She whispered key data points in his ear, yet in climax, she deliberately scratched his tattoo, blood seeping into the crack in the eagle's talon: "You haven't told me everything about this symbol's origin." In pain, Ryan let slip more: "The bastards inherit more than wealth—they inherit the power to eliminate obstacles… like you." Later, in the locker room, Alice sent a blood sample and audio files to Sarah—Ryan's DNA would be key to exposing the board's secrets.
Late that night, Alice followed her plan to Mark's private villa. He bound her to a bedpost with chains, whip strikes mixing with cruel pleasure: "You betrayed me, but tonight you'll be my leverage." He showed her a video of the board's emergency meeting: the chairman ordering Mark to take the fall for the scandal. Alice feigned breakdown through the pain, but when Mark loosened his grip, she sliced the chains with a blade hidden in her hair bun. As climax hit, she flipped him onto his back, the recorder capturing his confession: "Those board fossils think they can abandon me? I'll show them who's really in control!" After he passed out, she synced more evidence from the villa's computer to the cloud.
Rain peaked before dawn. Sarah's urgent call shattered the silence: "Alice, I hacked Mark's private server, but there's a problem… his encrypted call logs with Ryan last night were deleted." Alice's heart sank—Sarah might have been turned, or Mark had discovered her betrayal. She rushed to Sarah's apartment, but caught the scent of unfamiliar perfume at the door. Through the crack, she saw Ryan confronting Sarah: "Join us, or disappear." As Alice kicked the door open, Ryan's gun aimed at her heart, but Sarah's eyes flickered with conflict.
A standoff ensued. Alice suddenly tore open her shirt, baring an old scar on her collarbone—proof of Mark's abuse three years prior. She linked the scar to Ryan's tattoo, exposing the board's violent legacy: "You think you control me? My body's already carved with your secrets." Ryan's gun wavered and dropped. Sarah deleted the call logs, but Alice knew trust was shattered. Amid the downpour, they forged a fragile alliance: Sarah would hack the board's meeting location, while Alice and Ryan infiltrated to seize the final evidence.