Chapter 7 - News of the Kidnapping

The hours that followed the brief glimpse of chaos from Afghanistan were a blur of confusion and panic. What had been a calm, ordinary day at Stark Industries turned into a frenzied storm of unanswered questions and rapid-fire emails.

Marcus was back at his desk, his screen still filled with error logs and attempts to restore the connection. He tried again and again to re-establish the feed from Tony's convoy, but every effort led to the same result, nothing. The line was dead, and the data streams were silent.

It didn't take long for word to spread across the office floor.

"Did you hear?" a voice whispered behind Marcus. "Stark's convoy was attacked."

"I heard the same thing," another said, their tone low and fearful. "No one's been able to reach him."

The murmurs grew louder as people scrambled for updates, phones buzzing, messages pouring in. The sharp click of keyboards filled the air, but beneath it was a tension that Marcus had never felt in this building before. Stark Industries had been hit by crises before. Product delays, stock market dips, but this was different.

This was Tony Stark.

Every time something went wrong with the company's technology, Tony had been there to fix it. Every time a project hit a snag, Tony's brilliance pulled it through. But now, the man at the center of it all was... missing.

Marcus pushed his chair back, rubbing his hands over his face. He could feel the anxiety creeping in, his mind racing as he tried to make sense of what he had seen. Gunfire. Soldiers scrambling for cover. The explosion. And then, nothing.

His inbox was lighting up with alerts from the security team, and even the upper management had started sending urgent messages to the IT department, asking for answers that no one seemed to have.

"What do we do?" Josh appeared again, his voice barely above a whisper now. "They can't get through to Stark's convoy. No communication. It's like he just vanished."

Marcus shook his head, feeling a growing sense of helplessness. "I've been trying to re-establish the link, but there's no signal coming from their end. Whatever hit them must have knocked everything offline."

Josh nodded grimly, running a hand through his hair. "Word's spreading fast. Half the company's in a panic. Stark Industries without Tony Stark? Man, people are freaking out."

Marcus could feel it too. Stark Industries was a massive corporation, but so much of its identity, its success, was tied directly to Tony. His name was the brand. His inventions were the foundation. Without him at the helm, the entire company suddenly felt... vulnerable.

The growing chatter in the office became more frantic as the realization began to settle in. Tony Stark wasn't just missing. He had been kidnapped.

By mid-afternoon, the news had officially broken.

A company-wide memo from Obadiah Stane, acting CEO in Tony's absence, hit everyone's inboxes, and Marcus clicked it open with shaking hands.

Subject: Stark Industries Operational Update

As many of you have heard, there was an incident during Mr. Stark's demonstration in Afghanistan. His convoy was attacked, and at this time, we have lost communication with him and his team.

The situation is being handled with the utmost urgency, and we are working closely with the U.S. military to ensure Mr. Stark's safe return. In the meantime, we ask that all employees remain calm and continue their work. Stark Industries will remain operational.

Further updates will be provided as we receive them.

Sincerely,

Obadiah Stane

Acting CEO

--

Marcus stared at the email, the words feeling hollow in his mind. He knew what the message was meant to do, calm the employees, assure them that things were under control. But everyone in the building knew the truth, nothing was under control.

He looked around the office, seeing the same stunned expressions mirrored on the faces of his colleagues. Phones were ringing off the hook, and people were huddling together in small groups, talking in hushed voices about what this meant for the company, for the future.

But Marcus wasn't thinking about the future. He was thinking about the attack.

His thoughts returned to the brief glimpse of violence he had seen on the video feed, and he felt a tightening in his chest. There was something about the whole thing that didn't sit right with him. Why had the feed been cut so suddenly? And why had there been a breach in the communication line just moments before the attack?

Marcus knew Stark Industries' tech inside and out, there were fail-safes in place to prevent just that kind of breach. Something about this felt off, like the attack had been planned with precision. But why? And who could have pulled it off?

He clicked through his security logs again, scrolling back to the exact moment when the feed had cut out. There it was, the encrypted anomaly he had noticed earlier. A piece of code, scrambled and nearly untraceable, buried deep in the data.

Marcus frowned, running a few more checks. The encryption was good. Too good. It didn't look like the usual glitches they encountered when dealing with external data streams. Someone had inserted this breach into the system deliberately, but the code was well-hidden, like it was designed to blend into the background.

Marcus leaned forward, narrowing his eyes at the lines of code. He didn't know what this was yet, but he had a feeling it wasn't an accident. He had worked at Stark Industries long enough to know that security protocols here were ironclad, especially for missions like Tony's. This breach was planned.

But who would do that? And more importantly, why?

Before Marcus could dig further, the sound of the office doors swinging open caught his attention. He looked up just in time to see Obadiah Stane himself stride into the room, flanked by a group of senior executives. Stane's usually calm and composed demeanor had shifted slightly, though he kept his features tight, trying to maintain an air of authority in front of the panicking employees.

"All right, people," Stane's voice boomed through the office, cutting through the low murmur of voices. "I know you're all concerned, but I need you to focus. Stark Industries will continue to run smoothly. We are handling the situation, and your jobs now are to keep this company operating like it always has."

The words were meant to reassure, but Marcus could sense the tension in Stane's voice. He was under pressure -massive pressure. Without Tony, the company's future suddenly felt uncertain, and Obadiah was the one who would have to bear that weight.

Marcus watched as Stane moved through the office, speaking with department heads, issuing instructions, and making it clear that he was now in charge. But something about Stane's presence set Marcus on edge. His instincts told him to pay attention, that something was off with the way Stane was handling things.

His mind drifted back to the breach in the system, the strange encrypted code he had seen just before the attack. Did Stane know about this? Was there something more going on than just an attack in the middle of the desert?

He pushed the thought aside for now, but not before making a mental note to come back to it. There was something here -something deeper than anyone was letting on.