Chapter 5 - THE HONEY FILE
Martin Vale had heard.
Of course he had.
Thirty employees witnessed Paige call Gabriel Moretti honey.
By lunch, half the building probably knew.
Why create a file?
Kevin explained.
“Vale monitors anything Gabriel notices.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
“What does that mean?”
“He has profiles.”
“On employees?”
“On everyone.”
Vale tracked people Gabriel praised.
Criticized.
Promoted.
Protected.
Anyone who might become useful—or dangerous.
Paige’s manifests had impressed Gabriel.
Her debt calls caught his attention.
Then she became the only administrative assistant personally summoned upstairs.
To Vale, that made her relevant.
“Where is the HONEY file stored?” Nico asked.
“Backup drive and remote server.”
“Password?”
Kevin shook his head.
“No.”
Paige asked:
“What would be in my file?”
Kevin looked ashamed.
“Everything he could collect.”
Work records.
Debt.
Family.
Her mother’s Ohio address?
Her blood went cold.
“Buster.”
Kevin frowned.
“What?”
“My dog is with my mother.”
Gabriel’s expression changed instantly.
Nico was already moving.
“Send local protection?”
Paige snapped:
“No men with guns showing up at my mother’s house without explanation.”
Nico stopped.
Gabriel looked at her.
“What do you want?”
Good question.
“Call the local police if there is a credible threat. First call my mother.”
She did.
Her mother answered sleepy and irritated.
Fine.
Buster barked in background.
No strange cars.
No contact.
Paige exhaled.
Then Gabriel arranged, with Paige’s permission, for a licensed local security service to watch the street discreetly.
Ask.
Consent.
She noticed.
Then the IT team traced Vale’s remote server.
Encrypted.
But the HONEY file name appeared in directory metadata.
Created 4:11 p.m.
Last modified 5:03.
What happened at 5:03?
Gabriel had summoned Paige at roughly five.
Vale was updating while she rode the elevator.
Nico recovered system logs.
The file pulled data from HR.
Her emergency contact.
Salary.
Address.
Then something unexpected.
Graphic-design portfolio URL.
Paige stared.
“My portfolio?”
She had not opened it in two years.
But HR kept the link from her original application.
Vale accessed it.
Why?
Paige logged in.
Portfolio abandoned.
Old student projects.
Branding exercises.
Packaging.
Northstar draft concepts.
She froze.
Northstar.
She had uploaded an early case-study version privately for job applications before Kevin asked her to remove it.
It remained hidden, unlisted but accessible by direct link.
Vale had access through HR.
Inside the project were all twelve logo drafts.
Including draft seven.
The one used on fraudulent invoices and the burned container.
That meant Vale did not necessarily receive the draft from Kevin.
He could have taken it directly from her portfolio.
Then Paige noticed views.
Private analytics.
Someone had accessed the hidden Northstar project 184 times over two years.
Mostly from one IP range.
Moretti Logistics.
Her design work had been used as a template for fraud while she sat downstairs formatting reports.
Then another file in her portfolio caught Gabriel’s attention.
“What's this?”
A branding project for a fictional cargo company called Meridian Atlas.
Paige shrugged.
“College assignment.”
Logo incorporated a compass rose and color-coded route bars.
Gabriel stared.
“We use those bars.”
“What?”
He opened internal shipping dashboard.
Some container manifests carried a set of small colored bars beside route identifiers.
Paige looked closer.
They were almost identical to her college design.
Not exact.
Adapted.
“Who designed your tracking interface?”
Gabriel’s face hardened.
“Martin Vale’s department.”
Paige’s old portfolio had not inspired one shell company.
Vale had been mining her work for years.
Why?
Because using designs created before Paige joined Moretti Logistics gave him an external source with plausible ownership trail.
If fraud surfaced, he could point back to her.
Then IT cracked a partial directory of the HONEY file.
Contents:
P.W. PORTFOLIO
IDENTITY DOCS
DEBT LEVERAGE
EXIT SCENARIO
G.M. ATTENTION
Paige stared at the last folder.
“G.M. attention.”
Gabriel’s initials.
Kevin whispered:
“If Vale thought Gabriel trusted you…”
“What?”
“He would move faster.”
“Why?”
May you like
Kevin looked at Gabriel.
“Because Vale has always been afraid of anyone you trust more than him.”
