We stay like that for several minutes. The silence isn't uncomfortable, it's necessary. Sometimes presence matters more than words.
Eventually, she pulls back slightly. Her eyes are dry, but there's a rawness to her expression that tells me the grief isn't finished. It's just been set aside for now.
"What are you going to do?" she asks. "About Konstantin's ultimatum?"
"Refuse it. Obviously."
"And then?"
"Find his leak. Cut off his intelligence. Make him fight blind." I pause. "Beyond that, I'm still strategizing."
She's quiet for a moment, something working behind her eyes. "I want to do something. I can't just sit here while people die."
"You're not sitting here. You're part of this." I hold her gaze.
She exhales, the frustration not gone but tempered by acceptance. "Fine. Then let's focus on what I can do. The leak."
"What about it?"
"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."
