“Report,” I reply, not looking away from the screen.
He crosses the room and places the file on my desk. “I was on it last night. Everything tied to her. This is what I found.”
I flip it open.
Photos. Dates. Redacted forms. My eyes move fast.
Raelyn Hart has been looking for her father for years.
FOIA requests. University access logs. Old colleagues contacted through burner emails. A missing persons report filed and quietly buried. Follow-ups that go unanswered. Leads that collapse just as she reaches them.
She hasn’t been careless.
She’s been blocked.
I lean back slowly, the chair creaking under my weight.
“Someone’s been closing doors before she reaches them,” Nik continues. “Police. Financial institutions. Academic archives. Even private investigators. Every time she gets close, the trail goes dead.”
I exhale through my nose.
On purpose.
I tap a finger against the desk once. “Who has the reach to erase a man that thoroughly?”
Nik doesn’t answer immediately.
He doesn’t need to.
The name is already forming in my mind.
Adrian Markov.
The kind of man who doesn’t kill unless he has to. The kind who prefers leverage over blood. The kind who knows how to make someone vanish while still keeping them useful.
I say his name aloud.
“Markov.”
The realization hits like ice water to the spine.
Markov had every reason to want Agent Hart silenced. Hart knew too much, touched too many streams that weren’t his to touch. And if Markov knows Raelyn is alive—married to a Rusnak—then my timeline has already collapsed.
This isn’t a threat on the horizon.
Danger is inside the walls.
I straighten, pulse steady but sharp. “Nik.”
He’s already alert. “Yes, sir.”
“Set up a secure video call. Lev. Roman. Dimitri. Now.”
He nods and moves instantly, fingers flying over his tablet.
While he works, I turn back to the file.
Raelyn’s searches weren’t random. She’d circled the truth like a planet caught in someone else’s gravity—always pulled off course at the last second. Requests denied. Contacts unreachable. Records corrupted. Markov’s signature is subtle, elegant. He doesn’t erase; he redirects. He lets people believe they’re failing on their own.