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 guiltthat'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?"
