Chapter 20 #2
"I've been thinking about it since Julian mentioned the security footage. Konstantin's people knew exactly where the cameras were at six different locations. That's not something you learn from a single source."
I lean back slightly, giving her space to work through it. "Go on."
"Nadia said the access list would include coordination, security, and medical. But camera positions aren't in donor files. Those are in security files. Separate system, right?"
"Correct."
"So either the leak has access to both systems..." She pauses, something sharpening in her expression. "Or there's more than one leak."
The thought has occurred to me. I've been hoping I was wrong.
"It's possible," I admit. "But two traitors operating independently? The odds are…"
"What if they're not independent?" She sits up straighter, the grief pushed aside as her tactical mind engages. "What if they're connected? Family, friends, something that would explain why two people would both betray you?"
"We vet for those connections."
"How thoroughly? And how recently?"
Our vetting process is extensive, but it focuses on the initial screening. Ongoing relationships, new ones formed after someone joins the network, those are harder to track.
"You're suggesting someone was turned after they started working for us."
"Or compromised. Threatened. Bribed." She meets my eyes. "I'm new here. I don't know your people. But I know that loyalty can be bought or broken. What changed in the last few months? New staff? Someone with money problems? Someone with family outside the compound who could be leveraged?"
I stand, pacing toward the window. She's right; we've been looking at who had access, not what might have changed to make someone willing to share it.
“There are a few with family,” I say slowly. “Their families are human and live outside the compound.”
"Could Konstantin have gotten to them?”
"It's possible." The thought sickens me. "But I don't want to accuse anyone without evidence."
"I'm not saying it's anyone specific. I'm saying it's a vulnerability.”
I turn back to face her. "You're good at this."
"I spent three years in the underground. You learn to read people. Figure out who's reliable and who'll sell you out for the right price." A shadow crosses her face. "I didn't always get it right. But I learned."
"What else do you see?"
She considers. "The timing. Konstantin's attacks have been escalating: the scrying, the depot, and now the donors.
But his intelligence has been perfect. Every strike exactly where it hurts most." She pauses.
"That's not luck. That's someone who knows your priorities. Who knows what matters to you."
"Someone close."
"Maybe. Or someone who's been watching for a long time."
The thought chills me. How long has Konstantin had eyes inside my operation? Weeks? Months? Longer?
"There's something else," Celeste says. "The letter. He mentioned me specifically."
"I told you…"
"I know what you told me. But think about it. How did he know I mattered to you? I've been here eight days. I've been on two missions. Most of that time I've spent training or in the medical wing."
The question stops me cold.
She's right. To an outside observer, Celeste should look like any other new recruit. Useful, perhaps, but not significant. Not someone worth naming in an ultimatum.
Unless someone told Konstantin otherwise.
"The leak isn't just sharing logistics," I say slowly. "They're sharing observations. Personal ones."
"Someone who's seen us together. Who noticed that you're..." She trails off.
"Different with you."
"Yes."
The circle of suspects narrows dramatically. Not just anyone with file access, someone close enough to observe my behavior. Someone in the inner circle itself.
"That limits the possibilities," I say.
"It also raises the stakes. If the leak is someone close to you…"
My comm buzzes before she can finish. Marcellus's voice: "We found something. You need to see this."
I meet Celeste's eyes. Whatever we've discovered here, it will have to wait.
"On my way."
I stand, offer her my hand. She takes it, lets me pull her to her feet. For a moment we're standing too close, her hand still in mine, the weight of everything between us, the kiss, the grief, the danger, the growing understanding that whoever is betraying us knows exactly what she means to me.
"This isn't over," I say quietly. "What you figured out matters. You matter."
"I know." Her fingers squeeze mine briefly before releasing. "Let's go see what they found."
The security center has transformed in our absence.
Maps cover every available surface. Data streams across multiple screens. Julian and Nadia are huddled over a tablet while Marcellus stands at the main display, his expression carved from stone.
"Report," I say.
Marcellus pulls up a series of timestamps. "We traced the access logs for donor addresses and security camera positions. Two separate systems, two separate access points, but the queries happened within minutes of each other."
"Two people?"
"One terminal. The access credentials belong to Cyrus Knight."
The name hits like a physical blow. Cyrus Knight, my security coordinator. Something cold settles in my stomach. "Security coordinator. He has access to camera feeds."
"All of them," Marcellus confirms. "Internal and external. It's part of his job."
I think about every corridor we've walked together. The training room. The conference room.
Cyrus saw all of it. Reported all of it.
That's how Konstantin knew Celeste mattered. Not because someone in my inner circle talked, but because someone was watching us through my own security system.
"He's been watching," Celeste says quietly. She's made the same connection. "That's how Konstantin knew about me. Footage."
"Where is he now?" I ask.
"That's the problem." Marcellus's jaw tightens. "He's gone. Left the compound approximately two hours ago, right before the donor attacks began. Security footage shows him exiting through the east gate."
"Alone?"
"Yes. He told the gate guard he was running an errand. Standard protocol for senior staff."
Which means he walked out freely, with whatever information he'd gathered, and delivered it directly to Konstantin.
"Find him," I say. "Quietly. I want him brought back alive."
"Already deployed teams. But Maximus," Marcellus hesitates. "There's something else. We pulled his communication logs. He's been in contact with an outside number for the past three months. The calls are encrypted, but we traced the number to a burner phone purchased in Konstantin's territory."
Three months. Cyrus has been feeding information to Konstantin for three months.
"His family," I say slowly. The pieces are falling into place. "Before he was turned."
Marcellus nods grimly. "Wife and daughter. He was turned forty years ago, but he never stopped watching them. The wife has since passed, but his daughter has children now, grandchildren he's never met. They live in Decatur."
"And Konstantin found out."
"They weren't at their residence when we sent someone to check."
So Konstantin has them. A family who probably doesn't even know Cyrus is still alive, that the husband and father they buried decades ago has been watching over them from the shadows. And now they're leverage.
The rage is cold now, focused. Konstantin didn't just attack my network; he destroyed a family to do it. Took a good man and forced him into an impossible choice.
I feel Celeste's presence beside me before I see her. She's been quiet, listening, absorbing. When I glance at her, I see understanding in her eyes.
She knows what I'm thinking. What I'm feeling. The guilt that's already starting to settle in my chest, because Cyrus's family is in danger, and that's at least partially my fault for not seeing the threat sooner.
"We'll find them," she says quietly. "His family. We'll get them back."
I don't know if that's possible. But I nod anyway.
"Increase compound security to maximum," I tell Marcellus. "No one leaves without my explicit authorization. And start a full review of everyone's external contacts. If Cyrus was compromised through his family, others might be vulnerable too."
"Understood."
The others disperse to execute orders. I stand in the center of the room, surrounded by maps and data and the evidence of my failure.
Celeste hasn't moved.
"You should rest," I tell her. "Tomorrow will be worse."
"Probably." She doesn't leave. "What are you going to do?"
"Plan. Prepare. Figure out how to respond to Konstantin's ultimatum without getting more people killed."
"That's not what I meant." She steps closer, lowering her voice. "What are you going to do right now? Tonight? For the next few hours?"
I don't have an answer. The honest truth is that I'll probably stand here running scenarios until dawn, trying to find a path forward that doesn't end in disaster.
"I don't know," I admit.
"Then let me stay." Her hand finds mine again, a small gesture, hidden from anyone who might be watching. "You don't have to do this alone anymore."
The words crack something in my chest that I didn't know was still intact.
"Celeste."
"I know the timing is terrible. But you just found out someone you trusted for years betrayed you, and I'm not leaving you alone with that."
She's not offering passion. Not offering distraction. She's offering presence. The same thing I offered her when she was grieving Clara.
Learning from each other. Growing together.
"Okay," I say quietly. "Stay."
We stand there in the security center, hands clasped, watching the screens track the search for a man who used to be my friend.
Dawn is coming. Konstantin's deadline approaches. And everything I've built is more fragile than I knew.
But for the first time in a very long while, I don’t feel I’m facing it alone.