THE CARRINGTON CODE
A political–intelligence thriller
CHAPTER ONEToronto — Six Months AgoThe city glowed beneath the storm clouds, a grid of white and gold stretching out from the tower that carried his name. From the top floor, Lucas Carrington watched the lights pulse in waves—steady, ordered, dependable. The way things were supposed to be.Behind him, laughter drifted from the private lounge. Michelle’s voice carried easily—warm, practiced, perfectly suited to the delegation from Norris Defence Systems. Their suits were tailored, their smiles well-rehearsed. Partners in theory. Competitors in truth.Lucas felt the tension the moment they stepped into his penthouse. He wasn’t sure why. Instinct, maybe. Or experience. Or the simple fact that his company had built something the world wasn’t ready for and would never stop wanting.LUCAS Global’s new architecture had already drawn attention from places he preferred not to think about—quiet inquiries, discreet invitations, pressure packaged as opportunity. Nations didn’t ask for access to revolution; they tried to buy it, steal it, or bury it.He had expected interest.He hadn’t expected it in his living room.Michelle caught his eye across the room and smiled in a way that asked him to trust her. To trust the process. To trust the night. He returned the smile, because that was what the moment required.Because sometimes love was the quietest way to lower your guard.Storm light flashed, briefly throwing the room into sharp relief—the delegation leaning in too closely, Michelle’s hand on a wine glass, Lucas’s own reflection watching all of it with a stillness he didn’t yet understand.This would be the night he remembered.Not for what happened.But for what he failed to see.Six months later, when everything unraveled, he would look back and realize the truth:The first breach had not been in his servers.
It had been here.
In this room.
In this moment.
Inside the only place he never thought to defend.The world would soon learn that betrayals have consequences—
and billionaires make very patient hunters.