The makeshift interrogation room inside the abandoned Montenegrin customs outpost smelled faintly of oil and saltwater. Heavy rain hammered the tin roof. Michael stood behind the one-way mirror, watching Juliet circle the courier like a wolf testing a fence.
The courier Dimitri Vorun, according to his fake passport was sweating, despite the cold.
Juliet leaned forward. "Your boss thinks you're worth dying for. I'm not convinced."
Dimitri swallowed, eyes darting to the camera in the corner as if hoping it would blink back in rescue.
Behind the glass, Neal folded his arms. "He's rehearsed. You can see it in the timing of his pauses. Someone trained him for this."
Sophie smirked. "Trained, yes. Good at it? Not particularly."
Swagger didn't bother to hide his annoyance. "Doesn't matter. A bad liar is still dangerous if he hands us just enough truth to make the lie believable."
Michael nodded once. "Exactly what Lysander wants."
Twenty-three minutes into the questioning, Dimitri cracked just enough.
He spilled:
A warehouse in Thessaloniki Lysander allegedly used as a drop site
A new shell company transferring weapons supplies through Algiers
A "secret ledger" hidden in a villa outside Dubrovnik
The details were rich. Too rich.
Juliet stepped out of the room. "He's giving us everything too fast. I'm calling BS."
Peter walked in from the other side, breathing hard from his rush to get there. "We just confirmed one detail the Algiers shell company exists. But it only activated two weeks ago, right when you flushed Drosset out."
Neal rubbed the back of his neck. "So Lysander wants us chasing our own shadow."
Duval paced. "We hit those three locations, and we look exactly where he wants us to look."
Michael exhaled slowly. "Which means there's something he doesn't want us to see."
The breakthrough came from the quietest person in the room.
Chloe had been scanning Dimitri's story against her live data feeds. Suddenly she froze.
"This pattern" She highlighted three nodes on her laptop. "Look at the timing of these transactions."
Peter leaned over. "That's not a transfer pattern it's a handoff cascade."
Chloe nodded. "Used by mole networks. Whoever controls these three nodes isn't using them to move money they're using them to move instructions."
Juliet's eyes widened. "Lysander's mole ring inside Interpol."
And then Neal saw it too.
"Oh my god. He wants us focusing on external fronts so the internal ones stay quiet."
Swagger grunted. "Classic misdirection. Works on rookies. We're not rookies."
Michael stepped back from the table, gears turning.
"He fed us intel that only makes sense if you think all the danger is outside Interpol. He wants us to burn time overseas while his moles reposition."
Juliet's lips curved into a cold smile.
"So let's let him think we bought it."
Peter raised a brow. "You want to play along with the false intel?"
Michael nodded. "Yes. If we blow the deception too early, we lose the chance to root out the rest of his network."
Duval added, "But if we pretend to act on these leads, the moles will start moving to cover their tracks. We catch them while they're scrambling."
Neal smirked. "And if we play it right, they'll expose each other trying to stay alive."
Sophie tipped her head. "Beautiful. Dangerous. Predictably your style."
Peter looked at Michael, then Juliet. "You two need to lead this. The others can run the fake ops, but you'll take point on the mole hunt from inside Interpol."
Juliet crossed her arms. "We'll need access. Full access."
Peter didn't even hesitate. "Done."
They marched Dimitri out of the interrogation room and chained him to a reinforced bench. Juliet crouched in front of him, acting just angry enough to sell it.
"We're done here. Your intel better be real. If not, your boss will need a new courier."
Dimitri gave a shaky nod one that wasn't entirely fear.
He wanted them to act on it.
Good.
Later, back at their temporary HQ, the team gathered.
Michael pulled up a holographic network diagram. "Here's how this plays out."
He pointed to the fake intel nodes Lysander wanted them to chase.
"We hit these three fronts publicly. Make noise. Make movement. Make him believe we're swallowing the bait whole."
Then he highlighted three other nodes the "handoff cascade" Chloe found.
"These are real. These are his mole channels. Someone inside Interpol is passing intel up the chain."
Neal leaned in, eyes shining. "We watch these lines. Whoever uses them next is one of ours."
Juliet cracked her knuckles. "And then we tighten the rope."
Sophie added, "One question: do we take the moles down quietly or loudly?"
Michael exchanged a look with Juliet.
"Neither," Juliet said. "We let them stay exactly where they are. Feeding Lysander. Confident. Untouchable."
Michael finished:
"And then we use them to bring him down."