Anita did not panic easily anymore.
She had trained herself out of panic.
Panic makes noise.
Noise makes mistakes.
But when Victor called her at 6:12 a.m., she knew something had shifted.
He never called that early.
She answered before the second ring.
"Tell me," she said.
His voice was calm, but there was something underneath it. Tight. Controlled.
"We have a problem."
She sat up slowly in bed. "Define problem."
"The address you gave us," he said. "The one you visited yesterday."
"Elena Duarte's building," Anita said quietly.
"Yes."
A pause.
"It was compromised."
Her chest tightened. "How?"
"Someone accessed the surveillance request before it was processed," Victor said. "The file was flagged and then cleared. That means someone inside pushed it through."
"Inside where?" she asked.
"Our system."
Silence settled between them.
Anita swung her legs off the bed. "How many people had access?"
"Too many," he replied. "But only a handful would understand what the request meant."
"And now?" she asked.
"Elena disappeared overnight."
The words landed like cold water.
"She ran?" Anita asked.
"No," Victor said quietly. "She was extracted."
That word made her blood run colder than fear ever could.
Extracted meant organized. Planned. Clean.
It meant Marcus knew.
She closed her eyes for a second.
"You said the system was tight," she said.
"It is," Victor replied.
"Not tight enough."
He did not argue.
"That is not the worst part," he added.
Anita stood still. "Say it."
Victor inhaled slowly.
"The compromised file did not just include Elena's address."
Her pulse spiked.
"It included your new identity record."
For a moment, the room felt smaller.
"What exactly did it show?" she asked carefully.
"Your updated residential registration," he said. "Your legal employment details. Your passport reissue."
She felt the air leave her lungs.
"That information was sealed."
"It was."
"And now?"
"It has been accessed."
Anita walked to the window and pulled the curtain aside just enough to look at the street.
Morning traffic. Ordinary movement. Nothing unusual.
But ordinary had never meant safe.
"How long ago?" she asked.
"Six hours."
She calculated quickly.
That meant Marcus had known before sunrise.
Or someone had told him before sunrise.
"Do you know who?" she asked.
"No," Victor said. "But I know this was not random."
Of course it was not random.
Marcus did not stumble into opportunities.
He cultivated them.
She pressed her hand against the cold glass.
"This is not about Elena," she said slowly.
Victor waited.
"He wanted to see how fast you would react."
There was silence on the other end.
"You think this is a test?" Victor asked.
"I think this is him measuring your response time," Anita replied.
"And yours."
Victor exhaled slowly. "You think he wanted you to know."
"Yes," she said. "He wanted me to feel exposed."
A long pause followed.
"Anita," Victor said carefully, "there is another detail."
Her stomach tightened again.
"The internal access came from a secure terminal. Not a junior officer. Not an analyst."
"Who then?"
"A senior clearance."
Her fingers curled slightly.
"Are you saying someone high-level is working for him?"
"I am saying," Victor said evenly, "someone with authority helped move that file."
That meant Marcus was not just surviving.
He was embedded.
Anita turned away from the window.
"This changes everything," she said.
"Yes," Victor agreed.
Because now it was not just Marcus outside the system.
It was Marcus inside it.
"How many people are you completely sure of?" she asked.
A small pause.
"Three."
"That is not enough," she said.
"I know."
She walked back toward the bed and sat down slowly.
"Victor," she said quietly, "if he has someone inside, this is not about reclaiming me."
"What do you think it is about?"
"Leverage."
Silence.
"He does not need to drag me back into that world," she continued. "He needs to use me to control something bigger."
"Such as?"
"You."
The word hung between them.
Victor did not respond immediately.
"He knows you are involved now," she said. "He knows you are looking at him. He leaks my file. He forces you to move."
"And in moving, I expose weaknesses," Victor finished.
"Yes."
A slow realization settled.
This was not just about the past.
This was positioning.
Marcus was mapping the battlefield.
And someone inside was feeding him coordinates.
Victor's voice lowered slightly.
"I am locking internal access down. Quietly."
"Do not," Anita said immediately.
He paused. "Why?"
"Because the mole will notice," she replied. "If you shut things down suddenly, they will warn him."
"You suggest we do nothing?"
"I suggest we watch who moves next."
Silence.
"You want to bait them," Victor said.
"Yes."
"And what would the bait be?"
Anita's eyes drifted toward her phone on the bedside table.
"Me."
"No," Victor said immediately.
"You cannot shield me from this," she replied calmly. "He already has my file."
"That does not mean we let him push further."
"It means we control the next push."
Her voice was steady now. Clear.
No panic. No fear.
Just strategy.
"You think someone will leak again," Victor said slowly.
"They will," Anita replied. "Because Marcus will want confirmation. He will want proof that the first leak created damage."
Victor was quiet for several seconds.
"You are asking me to stage something."
"Yes."
"And if we are wrong?"
She let out a small breath.
"We are not wrong."
She knew Marcus.
He rewarded loyalty quickly.
And punished hesitation faster.
If the mole had acted once, they would act again.
Victor finally spoke.
"I will need your full trust."
She gave a small, humorless smile.
"That is expensive."
"I know."
Another silence passed.
Then he said quietly, "You are not the only one being tested."
She understood what he meant.
Marcus was not just watching her.
He was watching Victor too.
Three forces had now become four.
Marcus.
Victor.
The police system.
And the unknown mole inside it.
The board was more crowded than she thought.
"Victor," she said carefully, "if this leaks again, we do not react immediately."
"We observe."
"Yes."
"And if the mole is someone I cannot touch?"
"Then we learn who they protect," she said. "Because nobody betrays power for free."
Victor exhaled slowly.
"Four days," he said.
"Yes."
"He moves before then."
"He always does," Anita replied.
She ended the call.
The room was quiet again.
But the quiet felt different now.
It felt watched.
She walked to the bathroom mirror and looked at herself.
She did not look frightened.
She looked focused.
The woman Marcus once controlled would have tried to disappear again.
The woman she had become was preparing to hunt.
Someone inside the system had touched her file.
Someone believed she was still the weakest piece on the board.
They were wrong.
And if the mole thought they were invisible, they were about to learn something important.
Anita had survived powerful men before.
Now she was learning how to dismantle them.