At the console, Vanessa has pulled up a new interface. Federal database access logs. Her fingers fly across the keyboard.
"What are you looking for?" Angelina leans toward the console.
"Pattern." Vanessa does not look up. "If Victoria's handler had access to sealed court documents, there's a trail. Someone logged in. Someone pulled those files."
Screens cascade. Federal access logs from multiple field offices: Houston, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco.
"I'm cross-referencing access logs against the victim timeline. Who pulled files on judges before they died?"
Silence except for the keyboard. On the monitor, Victoria has not moved. Just staring at the wall, hands flat on the table.
"Same credentials keep appearing." Vanessa frowns. "FBI. Different field offices, but the requests route through San Francisco."
More typing. Vanessa's jaw tightens.
"Someone pulled files on eight of the fourteen victims within 72 hours of their deaths. Same credentials every time."
"Who?"
A pause. Then: "Special Agent Richard Monroe. FBI liaison on the judge killings."
Monroe. The FBI agent who sat in that conference room and told Angelina the Bureau was "committed to her safety." Who shook her hand. Looked her in the eye.
And fed her location to the people trying to kill her.
My hands curl into fists under the console.When I find him—
"He also pulled her case files three times in the last month," Vanessa adds. "Before any flowers arrived."
Angelina is staring at the screen like she can will the name to change.
"If this pattern holds," Kade says, "Monroe's feeding sealed intel up the chain. Victoria receives it downstream. They never interact directly."
"Compartmentalized." I force my hands to flatten. "Classic cell structure."
Kade nods. "Holloway's clean. Ran him six ways—nothing. He's been suspicious of Monroe for months, couldn't prove anything."
"So we use what we have."
"Victoria's handler doesn't know she's compromised." Kade is already thinking three moves ahead. "We keep her contained. Feed Monroe a lead through Holloway—something too good to pass up."
"And when Monroe moves on it?"
"We'll be waiting."
On the monitor, Victoria sits alone in the interrogation room. Staring at nothing. That vacant expression unchanged.
"What happens to her?" Angelina asks.
"That depends on how useful she stays." Kade's tone is neutral. "Right now, she's the only thread we have to the handler. We pull too hard, it breaks."
Angelina watches the screen. "She killed people."
"Yes."
"Fourteen people."
"Yes."