CHAPTER 4
THE FILE THAT SHOULD NOT EXIST
The message stayed on Mara's screen until the phone went dark.
She did not move.
Neither did Adrian.
The traffic light ahead changed from red to green.
A horn sounded behind them.
Adrian pulled forward.
"Put your phone on airplane mode."
Mara looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because we don't know whether that message came from the person watching you or from someone who wants us to think you're being watched."
She stared at him.
"You think it could be fake?"
"I think we don't assume anything."
Mara switched on airplane mode.
Her thumb hovered over the screen.
The message was still there.
We know where you're going.
Four words.
No threat.
No name.
No explanation.
That somehow made it worse.
"Could they have tracked the car?"
"Possibly."
"Your car?"
"Possibly."
"Then changing routes didn't matter."
"It mattered."
"How?"
"It told us they reacted."
Mara turned toward him.
"You wanted to see if someone would follow."
"I wanted to see if anyone reacted to a deviation."
"And they did."
"Maybe."
She gave him a look.
"You really hate giving straight answers."
"I hate giving answers I can't prove."
That shut her up.
For a few seconds, the only sound was the muted rush of traffic.
Adrian glanced at her phone.
"Keep it off the network."
"You think they'll send another?"
"Maybe."
"What if Naomi is trying to reach me?"
"Then we'll find another way to confirm it."
Mara looked down at the screen.
She hated this.
She hated that every normal decision had suddenly become a calculation.
She hated even more that Adrian was probably right.
The car turned onto a quieter street.
The Loop rose around them in glass and steel.
People crossed intersections with coffee cups in their hands. Buses groaned at the curb. Delivery cyclists threaded between cars.
Normal.
Everything looked normal.
Mara wondered how long it would take before she stopped believing appearances.
Adrian pulled into a parking garage beneath the building that housed the podcast studio.
Mara frowned.
"This isn't the usual entrance."
"No."
"Why?"
"The street entrance has too many sightlines."
She looked at him.
"Of course it does."
He parked.
"Stay in the car."
She sighed.
"Do you have any other instructions?"
"Yes."
"What?"
"Don't make me repeat myself."
She smiled despite herself.
"That's not an instruction."
"It is if you intend to ignore it."
Lena leaned forward from the back seat.
"I've decided something."
Mara turned.
"What?"
"You two are either going to kill each other or get married."
Silence.
Mara stared at her.
Adrian looked straight ahead.
Lena grinned.
"Interesting."
"Get out of the car," Mara said.
Lena laughed.
They stepped into the garage.
The air smelled like concrete, exhaust, and rain carried in on tires.
Adrian scanned the levels before leading them toward the private elevator.
Mara watched him.
"You've been here before."
"Twice."
"When?"
"Yesterday."
She stopped.
"Yesterday?"
"After our meeting."
"You checked the building before you knew I would come here?"
"I knew you would."
"How?"
"Your production schedule was in the security file."
She stared.
"You read my entire file?"
"Yes."
"That's invasive."
"It's my job."
"You're going to use that answer for everything, aren't you?"
"If it applies."
The elevator doors opened.
They stepped inside.
Adrian pressed the studio floor.
Mara crossed her arms.
"So you knew I'd come here."
"I knew this was your workplace."
"That's not what I asked."
His gaze met hers in the elevator mirror.
"You were always going to come back."
She studied him.
There was something strange about being understood by someone she had known for less than forty-eight hours.
It made her uncomfortable.
It also made her curious.
The elevator opened.
The studio was quiet.
Lena walked ahead, unlocking the main office.
Mara followed.
The familiar smell of coffee, cables, old equipment, and paper settled something inside her.
This was her territory.
Her desk.
Her notebooks.
Her microphone.
Her work.
Adrian remained near the entrance.
Mara set her bag down.
"You can relax."
"No."
She turned.
"Why?"
"I'm checking the room."
"You already checked the building."
"I know."
He moved through the studio.
Mara watched him inspect the hallway, emergency exit, windows, storage room.
Lena leaned toward her.
"He's terrifying."
"He's annoying."
"Same thing, depending on the lighting."
Mara tried not to smile.
Adrian looked toward them.
"Is there another entrance?"
Lena pointed.
"Loading corridor."
"Show me."
Lena looked at Mara.
"Do I work for him now?"
"No."
Adrian said, "You do if you want to stay alive."
Lena's expression changed.
Mara saw it immediately.
The joke disappeared.
Lena nodded.
"Come on."
Mara turned toward her computer.
The monitor came alive.
Several notifications appeared.
Emails.
Messages.
A calendar reminder.
Then one unfamiliar notification.
Mara clicked it.
A file-sharing service.
No sender name.
No subject.
Just an attachment.
Her stomach tightened.
Adrian was beside her before she could open it.
"Don't."
She looked up.
"I haven't touched it."
"Good."
He leaned closer to the screen.
Mara could smell the faint clean scent of his cologne.
She shifted slightly.
"Can you tell what it is?"
"Not yet."
He took out his phone.
"Marcus."
He made the call.
Mara looked at the attachment again.
The file name was a string of numbers and letters.
She recognized part of it.
Her eyes narrowed.
"Wait."
Adrian looked at her.
"That code."
"What about it?"
"I've seen it before."
"Where?"
"In Naomi's documents."
He turned back toward the screen.
Mara pointed.
"She used those numbers to label corporate transfers."
"Can you open it?"
"No."
"Good."
She frowned.
"You're enjoying saying that."
"No."
"You're terrible at lying."
"I know."
Marcus answered the call.
Adrian turned away.
"Send me a secure connection."
Mara listened as he described the file.
His voice stayed calm.
Professional.
But his expression had hardened.
He ended the call.
"Tell me what you know about that code."
Mara pulled one of her notebooks from the desk.
"I don't know what it means. Naomi used it beside several transactions."
"Which companies?"
She flipped through pages.
"Three."
"Names."
She gave them to him.
He wrote them down.
Then stopped.
Mara noticed.
"What?"
Adrian looked at the page.
"One of those companies appeared in a case I worked three years ago."
"What kind of case?"
"Threat assessment."
"Against who?"
"An executive."
"Which executive?"
He looked at her.
"Graham Voss."
The room seemed to become quieter.
Mara sat back.
"Voss?"
Adrian nodded.
"The same Voss you're investigating?"
"Yes."
"That isn't a coincidence."
"No."
Mara opened another notebook.
"I thought Voss was only connected to the parent company."
"He's more connected than that."
Adrian moved closer to her desk.
"What exactly were you looking for?"
"Financial irregularities."
"Be specific."
"Shell companies. Suspicious transfers. Payments that didn't match reported business activity."
"How did Naomi get involved?"
"She contacted me."
"Why?"
"She said she had proof."
"Proof of what?"
Mara hesitated.
"She didn't say."
Adrian watched her.
"Why?"
"She was scared."
"Of Voss?"
"I don't know."
"Did she mention a ledger?"
Mara looked up.
The question landed differently this time.
"No."
Adrian's expression changed slightly.
"You're sure?"
"Yes."
"Naomi never mentioned a ledger?"
"Not to me."
He looked toward the window.
Mara noticed the movement.
"You think there is one."
"I think someone is willing to risk exposing themselves to make sure you don't find something."
"That's not an answer."
"No."
He turned back.
"It's the closest thing I have to one."
Mara stood.
"Then let's find it."
"No."
She blinked.
"No?"
"You don't know what you're looking for."
"I know where to start."
"And I know what happens when investigators decide the answer is worth more than their safety."
Her jaw tightened.
"I'm not going to sit in a locked apartment while someone else investigates my work."
"I'm not asking you to."
"Then what are you asking?"
"That you let me understand the threat before you decide how much risk you're willing to take."
She stared at him.
He wasn't ordering her.
Not this time.
He was asking.
That mattered.
Mara sat down again.
"Fine."
Adrian nodded.
"Good."
She opened the files she had already collected.
For the next hour, they worked.
Not together exactly.
But beside each other.
Mara traced transactions.
Adrian examined names and connections.
Every so often, he asked a question.
She answered.
He never touched her computer without permission.
She noticed that too.
It was a small thing.
But after everything that had happened, small things mattered.
Lena returned with coffee.
"Anything?"
Mara shook her head.
"Nothing clean."
Adrian looked at one spreadsheet.
"What's this?"
Mara leaned over.
"Those are transfers between four companies."
"Why are they grouped?"
"I don't know."
He pointed to a date.
"This one happened two days before the acquisition."
Mara checked another document.
"Then another transfer happened three weeks later."
"Same amount?"
"Almost."
She typed quickly.
The numbers populated.
Her eyes moved across the screen.
"Wait."
Adrian leaned closer.
"What?"
She opened another file.
Then another.
The same amount appeared again.
Different company.
Different account.
Same date pattern.
Mara's pulse quickened.
"This isn't random."
Adrian looked at the screen.
"No."
She pulled up Naomi's notes.
"Look."
There was a handwritten reference in the margin.
Mara had overlooked it because the ink was faint.
A sequence of letters.
Then a number.
She typed the sequence into the encrypted file.
The screen changed.
A password prompt appeared.
Mara stared.
Adrian's face went still.
"What?"
"That's not a financial code."
"What is it?"
"A case reference."
He looked at her.
"Where did you get it?"
"Naomi's notes."
He entered the reference into his secure device.
A result appeared.
His expression changed.
Mara leaned forward.
"What?"
Adrian did not answer.
"Adrian."
He looked at her.
"I've seen this case before."
Her stomach dropped.
"Where?"
"Three years ago."
"The Voss case?"
"Part of it."
"What happened?"
His jaw tightened.
"Someone tried to bury the evidence."
Mara looked at the screen.
"Did they succeed?"
Adrian's silence answered.
She slowly sat back.
The room suddenly felt smaller.
All the scattered numbers.
Naomi disappearing.
The message.
The watcher.
The companies.
Voss.
They weren't separate pieces anymore.
They were beginning to form a pattern.
Mara whispered, "How big is this?"
Adrian looked at her.
"Bigger than harassment."
She swallowed.
"Then what is it?"
He closed the secure file.
"A network."
Mara looked toward the windows.
Beyond the glass, Chicago stretched beneath a gray afternoon sky.
The city looked exactly the same.
Cars moved.
People walked.
Trains passed.
But her understanding of it had changed.
She had spent months looking for a financial story.
She might have found something much worse.
Adrian picked up his coat.
"You're not going home."
Mara looked at him.
"Where am I going?"
"Somewhere secure."
She wanted to argue.
Instead, she looked at the file on her screen.
Then at him.
"How secure?"
"Secure enough that I can sleep."
Mara raised an eyebrow.
"You sleep?"
"Occasionally."
"Good to know."
He held her gaze.
For one quiet second, neither of them moved.
Then Adrian looked away first.
Mara noticed.
And for the first time, she wondered if his restraint had less to do with professionalism than he wanted her to believe.
She closed her laptop.
"Fine."
Adrian nodded.
"We leave now."
Outside the studio windows, rain began tapping against the glass again.
And somewhere beneath the numbers Mara had spent months chasing, something was waiting for her to find it.