Stratagems #20: Alex Felt the AI Collector Slow Down. He Knew Someone Else Had Made a Move.

Stratagems #20: Alex Felt the AI Collector Slow Down. He Knew Someone Else Had Made a Move.

Don't fight in clear water — stir it first. Don't strike when they're watching — strike when they're looking somewhere else.

— The 36 Stratagems, Disturb the Water and Catch a Fish

Previously on this series:

#17: Alex Set a Bait. The Catch Wasn't Code — It Was Someone Who Shouldn't Have Been Watching. — Alex planted a shadow training pipeline inside MedTech, let ACL's extraction pipe pull watermarked data. Found another set of eyes in ACL's infrastructure — a PGP key and an encrypted channel left by an unknown operator. He sent a message. The reply came back: "Channel confirmed."