Stratagems #14: Leo Found an AI Leak. He Wasn't the First to Find It.

Take the opportunity to pilfer a goat.

— The 36 Stratagems, Take the Opportunity to Pilfer a Goat

Previously on this series:

#5: Leo Walked Into a Burning House. He Walked Out With a Client. — At 1 AM, Leo received an anonymous message and drove across town to fix a competitor's outage. A second message followed — a screenshot with a name: Automated Compliance Lab. He didn't remember the acronym. He didn't delete the screenshot.

#10: Lena Watched a Team Adopt Her AI Template. Leo Didn't Know the Knife Was in the Contract. — Lena joined CoreStack as a consultant and built Leo a reporting template. Leo thought she was there to help. Five weeks later the template went live. Six months later the data baseline was locked. He only then realized he'd been inside her palm the whole time. Taken down by a smile.