The compound had always felt impenetrable.
Thick walls. Controlled access. Layers of loyalty built over years of blood and silence.
That illusion shattered quietly.
Cassian sensed it before he could prove it.
It was never the obvious things that betrayed a system—it was rhythm. Patterns that shifted just enough to feel wrong. Guards changing posts too early. Doors unlocking a second faster than protocol allowed. Information arriving almost when expected.
Almost.
He stood in the surveillance room long after midnight, lights dimmed, screens glowing. The campus incident replayed silently on one monitor while live feeds from around the compound cycled on others.
Everything looked normal.
Which meant it wasn't.
Cassian tapped his earpiece. "Lock down internal comms. Quietly."
A pause. "That'll raise questions," came the reply.
"Let it," Cassian said. "Anyone who panics is already telling me something."
---
Anabeth felt it too.
The way conversations stopped when she entered certain rooms. The way eyes lingered—not with fear, but calculation.
She stood in the private dining area, staring down at untouched food. Rafael sat across from her, reviewing reports, jaw tight.
"You're distracted," she said.
"So are you," he replied.
She looked up. "Someone here doesn't want me here."
Rafael's eyes lifted sharply. "Explain."
"They don't look at me like a liability," she said. "They look at me like a variable."
Rafael leaned back slowly. "Cassian thinks there's a leak."
Anabeth nodded. "So do I."
Rafael studied her for a moment. "You're not afraid."
"No," she said. "I'm angry."
That worried him more.
---
The first confirmation came from something small.
A supply manifest.
Cassian reviewed it twice, then a third time. One crate listed as medical equipment had been rerouted internally—approved by a mid-level coordinator named Elias Vorn.
Elias wasn't new.
Which was exactly the problem.
Cassian pulled Elias's file. Ten years in. Clean record. Reliable. Invisible.
The most dangerous kind.
He cross-checked timestamps.
Elias had approved the reroute before Rafael's statement went public.
Which meant foreknowledge.
Cassian's fingers stilled.
"Found you," he murmured.
---
Elias Vorn stood on the balcony outside the east wing, cigarette glowing faintly in the dark. He looked calm. Bored. Like a man waiting for nothing.
That should have been reassuring.
Instead, Cassian watched him through the scope, pulse steady, thoughts sharp.
He didn't move to apprehend.
Not yet.
Traitors were more useful when they believed they were hidden.
---
Inside, Rafael convened a late-night meeting—inner circle only.
Cassian watched reactions carefully.
When he announced a false relocation plan for Anabeth—two locations mentioned, one real, one fabricated—most faces remained neutral.
Elias didn't blink.
That was the tell.
Not surprise.
Not interest.
Certainty.
Cassian felt a grim satisfaction settle in.
---
The message came less than an hour later.
Encrypted. External.
Unknown:
She won't be safe in the west wing.
Cassian smiled coldly.
The west wing didn't exist.
---
Anabeth was the last piece.
Cassian needed to know if Elias would move without confirmation.
So he told her the truth.
Not everything.
Just enough.
"You're not leaving tonight," Cassian said quietly as they stood near the window.
She frowned. "Rafael said—"
"Rafael is part of the test," Cassian interrupted. "So are you."
Understanding flickered in her eyes. "I'm the trigger."
"Yes."
She didn't hesitate. "Then use me."
Cassian held her gaze. "This won't be comfortable."
She shrugged lightly. "Neither is being hunted."
---
Elias moved at 02:14.
Cassian watched him slip into a restricted corridor, access code granted instantly—too instantly. He carried no weapon. No device.
Confidence.
That was his mistake.
Cassian intercepted him halfway down the hall.
"Lost?" Cassian asked mildly.
Elias froze for just a fraction of a second—then recovered.
"Security audit," Elias replied. "You know how it is."
Cassian smiled faintly. "I do."
He stepped closer. "Which wing were you heading to?"
Elias hesitated.
Cassian's smile vanished.
"That's what I thought."
Two guards appeared behind Elias, weapons raised.
Elias exhaled slowly. "So this is how it ends."
"No," Cassian said. "This is where it starts making sense."
They took him to the interrogation room—quiet, windowless, stripped of comfort.
Rafael arrived minutes later.
He didn't sit.
He stared.
"You," Rafael said softly. "Out of everyone."
Elias met his gaze. "You stopped listening."
Rafael's voice dropped. "I stopped tolerating dissent."
"No," Elias snapped. "You stopped seeing people. Everything became expendable. Even her."
Anabeth stood just outside the door, listening.
Rafael's jaw tightened. "You sold information to Hale."
Elias laughed bitterly. "Sold? No. I traded."
"For what?" Cassian asked.
"Balance," Elias replied. "Hale doesn't destroy systems. He replaces heads."
Rafael leaned forward. "You helped him attack a campus."
Elias's expression flickered.
"I didn't authorize that," he said quickly.
"But you enabled it," Anabeth said from the doorway.
All three men turned.
She stepped inside calmly.
"You didn't care who got hurt," she continued. "You just wanted leverage."
Elias looked at her fully for the first time. "You're the chaos variable."
She nodded. "And you underestimated me."
Silence filled the room.
Rafael straightened. "Why now?"
Elias exhaled. "Because Hale promised an end. And you promised endless war."
Cassian crossed his arms. "He lied."
Elias laughed softly. "They all do."
---
The truth came out in pieces.
Drop locations. Contacts. Codes. Names still embedded inside the system.
Not one traitor.
Three.
Elias was just the spine.
By the time dawn broke, the compound had been purged quietly.
No gunfire.
No spectacle.
Just absence.
Rafael stood alone afterward, staring at the city.
"He was right about one thing," Rafael said.
"What?" Cassian asked.
"I stopped listening."
Anabeth stepped beside him. "Then start again."
Rafael looked at her. "This gets worse before it ends."
She met his gaze steadily. "I know."
Somewhere else in the city, Hale received the alert that made his smile fade for the first time.
ASSET COMPROMISED. NETWORK EXPOSED.
He leaned back slowly.
"So," he murmured, "they found the rot."
The war had shifted again.
No longer shadows.
No longer whispers.
Now it was personal.
And the next move—
Would draw blood.