Stratagems #18: Leo Tracked an AI Signal to Derek. Both Were Looking for the Same Enemy.

Capture the ringleader first. The rest will scatter on their own.

— The 36 Stratagems, Capture the Ringleader

Previously on this series:

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

#14: Leo Found an AI Leak. He Wasn't the First to Find It. — Leo discovered a hidden FinOptima pipeline doing reverse-cache distillation. He injected 15 lines of weight-drift monitoring code. Before his audit ended, ACL had already sealed the same leak — two weeks ahead of him.