Is this destiny?

After breakfast, Sarah, Aiden, Mishi, Petar, Lucija, Emir, and Tereza moved to the meeting room in the Castel to discuss current issues related to the Sigma army.

"Nick and Marija are still seeing each other on average every six weeks. Mostly she comes to visit him. Sometimes for a few hours, and sometimes she stays overnight." Mishi said. "Her online activity dropped significantly over the last three years, while we are observing that Nick\'s presence is getting more aggressive. Based on the reports, she never recovered full functionality in her fingers which were dislodged three years ago by Oni, and while analyzing Nick\'s attacks, we can see that he is using some of Marija\'s techniques."

"You are saying that Nick is hacking, and Marija taught him her techniques." Aiden summarized.

Mishi confirmed. "It looks like it. We also have records which prove that four attacks by Nu were done while Marija stayed at his apartment overnight."

"This is a looooong collaboration with no significant output so far…" Emir said suspiciously. "Do you think that this is beyond hacking? Marija is staying at his place overnight, and considering her history, is it possible that they are in a relationship?"

Lucija dismissed that idea. "Marija never got along with Nick, she despised him as an egotistical child. And we can see that both of them are dating other people. Of course... that does not mean that they are not sleeping together. However, it\'s undeniable that Nick and Marija joined forces for some reason. Other than their hatred toward us, what else they have in common?"

"Hatred toward me." Sarah said. "Nick is blaming me for rejecting him. That was four years ago, but his ego is hurt and he didn\'t get over it. Marija is blaming me for kicking her out from our group when she was caught between Michael and Oni. We all know that it was Nick and Marija behind the news which leaked last year, that I and Aiden are majority shareholders of the Ceresc Solutions."

Everyone in the room nodded in agreement. Early last year, there were numerous articles which resurfaced online, exposing Sarah and Aiden as the real owners of the Ceresc Solutions. The articles spread like a virus and Sarah and Aiden traced the origins to a cluster of servers that Nick is normally using.

The articles were removed, but not before the information was out there for the public to see. Of course, by then, the company was stable, and the news didn\'t do any real damage, it actually helped them because several prominent companies came to the Ceresc Solutions for their marketing need in an effort to get closer to Sarah and Aiden. Some identified them as people behind the Army of Chaos and some as the people who are close to the top of the White family, but most of the netizens saw them as young heirs who had money to start their company and they kept their identities secret in order to avoid the attention. Nothing uncommon, and the news dimmed rather quickly.

However, this information leak put the Ceresc Solutions on the radar of Voronin and Lebedev families.

Because of this, Sarah and Aiden decided to reveal their background to Mishi, Petar, Lucija, Emir, and Tereza, giving them an option to back off if they don\'t want to be involved.

The five people decided to stay.

"Publicly, we are clean and so is the Ceresc Solutions. However, we all know that none of us is without baggage. There are so many people after us, what is two more?" Petar said cheerfully.

Lucija echoed Petar\'s words and added: "With all the security around, I don\'t think there is a safer place than here." 

Emir was slightly offended. "Do you think that we are weak or useless? With our skills, we can add a layer of protection around your forces. Let us train them."

Sarah and Aiden thanked them.

Other than revealing about Voronin and Lebedev families, Sarah and Aiden also told them that the security guys who are training on the other side of the forest are their personal forces that are fighting against the influence of those two families. The others didn\'t react much. They had their suspicions that those are not only regular security guys.

Since then, Mishi, Petar, Lucija, Emir, and Tereza are training selected members of the Army of Chaos in the areas of hardware, networks, and of course, hacking.

"We should keep our eye on Nick and Marija." Mishi reminded everyone. "I have a feeling that they are up to something and that this is silence before the storm."

"We are ready for the storm." Emir said confidently. "Let them try hacking in here. I have several people whose skills are not inferior to Nick\'s."

Over time, several individuals from the Army of Chaos became experts in cyber-security. They are working as employees of Ceresc Solutions, and Sarah and Aiden are pleased that their security is much more than just a bunch of muscles and guns. Since the company opened, they had a number of hack attempts from various parties, which were handled by the Ceresc Solutions employees and Eve didn\'t need to act at all.

Tereza was not so excited like Emir. "Storm? What storm? They look more like a breeze to me. All of them individually are just flies which we can easily swat away. Especially because we know who they are."

Sarah paused and thought about Tereza\'s words. What Tereza said is true, but the word \'individually\'

rang in Sarah\'s head like a warning. Also, Sarah never forgot what Stella told her about \'influencers\' who are trained to infiltrate other organizations and she wondered, how many of those are within the Ceresc Solutions? What would happen if their enemies join forces? Would they be able to create a storm? Sarah hoped that she is overthinking it.

…

In Sarah\'s and Aiden\'s bedroom…

The Ceresc Solution CEO and directors went to work, and Sarah and Aiden decided to spend some time on finalizing their plans for tonight\'s mission.

"Are you OK?" Aiden asked Sarah. He noticed that her mood is off since they left the meeting with the members of the Sigma army.

Sarah was feeling uneasy, but she could not explain it, so she decided not to worry Aiden. "Yeah. I guess that the closer we are to the goal, the more anxious I am. Tonight, we will take another bite off from the Lebedevs. I look forward to it."

Aiden hummed in agreement.

Sarah and Aiden established a firm presence in the South West of the United States and in Central Europe, and then they started attacks on Voronin families with the hope that Voronins will suspect Lebedevs and fight each other. Unfortunately, that didn\'t work. Both families were so focused on maintaining what they have, that they were not willing to engage in open confrontation.

Sarah and Aiden went back into thinking mode and decided to change their strategy. They started attacks on bases which belong to Lebedevs and Voronins, in turns. In this way, the two families maintained their balance in power, while Sarah and Aiden slowly crumbled them from the edges.

Main Lebedev and Voronin families are not large, however, they depend on their branch families for resources and maintaining their influence. Based on the reports, thanks to the systematic attacks of the Army of Chaos (and its allies) the resources of the two families are down to about 50% of what they were three years ago. It is slow, but steady progress, and Sarah and Aiden don\'t see those two as much of a threat anymore. Both Lebedev and Voronin families are so desperate that they are scrambling to keep what they have and recruit more people while focusing on defense. This is exactly where Sarah and Aiden wanted them to be.

On a few occasions, branches of Lebedev and Voronin families attempted to recapture their lost bases, but they suffered heavy losses.

Other than the White foundation, the Army of Chaos has several other official allies.

Ellie and Jasper are present in Northern America and in Northern Europe. The two of them restructured forces that were under Kiani and Young families and joined them into one as YK while splitting it into two factions. Ellie is managing information gathering, while Jasper is in charge of fighters. Mathew and Melisa are observing everything and acting as mentors.

In the South of Europe and North Africa, there is Nero Armi which is under Angelo\'s command, and Sean and Ryan are Angelo\'s deputies.

Smithsonite corp. and White corp. are collaborating on several large projects, which allows Felix and his team to collaborate with the department for weapons development in Charlie\'s company. It\'s exciting what they are making, and the Army of Chaos is the first one who gets access to those new weapons. Of course, all this is not official.

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