The Spy Who Left

sen

kind of frantic energy that only comes with

tching the view count on the Tech Summit vid

rolling through the comments sect

ppears behind her chair like

ng on Dr. Aria Vale that isn't j

zed out of thin air three years ago. No previous employment records, no academic

otprint, Sarah. You just h

ke's already moved on to t

aphy reads like a carefully constructed fiction. PhD from MIT, but the records are sealed

Tech is a maze of shell corporations

e deliberately e

onfused with the Nobel laureate, sits in his cramped apartment

on finding people who

him question everything

lings with university records for the fifteenth ti

ler ID shows his contact

ked into that A

nd

All I can tell you is she graduated summa cum laude, but her d

traighter. "Defe

Whoever she is, she had some seriou

ne goe

plains the sealed records,

level of clearance would disappear for three

Tech Today has taken

tech conference, startup event, and industry meetup in S

ty firm. "But I'll tell you what's weird. About two years ago, we got outbid on a major contr

ver her notepad. "What

ty Solutions, I think. But the sign

eart

have the

ut I remember thinking whoever wrote that propos

ck business registration for

anies, all registered in the past three years, all wi

es within she

very busy cover

dia explosion

ion with a Hart Industries white paper from two years ago, pointing ou

ted to "unnamed c

hen reshared. Then pick

steryGenius is tr

notice Hart Industries stock is tanki

art's 'consulting partner' was his wife. Same

at a private demo last year. She was using

read e

o appeared briefly in their professional lives only to vanish again,

ad that, when pulled, starts unraveling

hone hasn't st

ch, this

ring the Vale story?" The

who is

up that folded last year. DataSecure Inc. We w

her record

d we were having security issues and offered to help

d she lo

Vega. But she rewrote our entire security architecture

ickens. "Where i

or forty million. All b

ne goe

. Anothe

ing for any mention of Ana Vega

s keep

agreements. Contract signat

me woman using

who's been hidi

espondent Lisa Park stares at t

ed to a building in downtown Ma

ferent companies, all with similar names,

ytics. Vale Security Syste

hell," Lis

ll list the same registered agent, the same

, different tax ID numbers, dif

of companies, all feeding

exactly how to build a business empi

as she realizes

just emerge from no

ndation for this moment, company by compan

d, she was constructing the most elabora

en freelance investigator Tony Rosett

s or patent filings or

ociety page photo fro

n and Aria Hart at the

d CEO from the tech conference. Her hair is different

eyes are

tinctive

connection everyo

ech genius and C

art's

sedly disappeared a

d crawled away to lick

d been buildi

breaks simultaneously a

: Dr. Aria Vale is Hart

TO TECH TITAN: Th

a Scorned Wife Built a

loses its col

es twice from

quests to anyone who's ever worked wit

a page gets edited 8

genius, revenge, corporate espiona

who's ever met either Leon or Aria Hart, one question keeps surfaci

use and reconsider everything the

business empires for three ye

tantly, where

terprising journalists dig up within hours,

would be about t

any school event, any social gathering

Aria Vale's trans

mystery is ju