Alice sat perfectly still.
The color had not completely left her face, but it had faded enough that Dayo noticed it imdiately.
A few seconds earlier she had looked nervous. Now she looked like soone waiting for a verdict.
Across the office, Felix remained focused on his laptop while lines of data continued scrolling across the screen.
The room felt smaller than it had five minutes ago.
Not because anything had physically changed.
Because uncertainty had started becoming certainty.
Alice swallowed.
"Am I in trouble?"
Dayo leaned back slightly in his chair and studied her for a mont before answering.
The question sounded genuine. Not defensive. Not manipulative. Just worried. That alone told him a lot.
If she had knowingly betrayed him, she wouldn’t be sitting there looking like she wanted the floor to open and swallow her whole.
"You aren’t in trouble," he said carefully. "At least not from ."
Alice released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
"That doesn’t sound very comforting."
"It wasn’t ant to be."
That earned the smallest smile. The tension eased slightly. Before either of them could continue, the office door opened.
Felix stepped inside carrying his laptop.
His expression was already telling Dayo the answer.
They had found sothing.
Alice noticed it too.
Her eyes imdiately shifted toward him.
Felix walked to the desk and turned the screen around.
"I found Wendy."
The room went quiet.
Alice stared.
Dayo folded his arms.
"Talk."
Felix nodded.
"She’s real. The na is real. The identity isn’t."
Alice blinked.
"What does that an?"
"It ans Wendy exists the sa way a fake passport exists."
Felix tapped a few keys.
Several photographs appeared on the screen.
Different hairstyles.
Different nas.
Different cities.
The sa woman.
Alice’s stomach dropped.
"Oh."
"Yeah," Felix said.
"Oh."
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
The realization settled slowly.
Painfully.
The woman Alice thought was a therapist wasn’t a therapist.The woman she thought she t by chance hadn’t appeared by chance at all. The entire relationship had been manufactured.
Designed.
Directed.
Controlled.
Dayo’s jaw tightened.
"Keep going."
Felix nodded.
"We cross-referenced her image against the data we pulled months ago from Silas’s internal systems."
Another photograph appeared. This one was older and less polished. A personnel file. A recruitnt record. An operative designation.
Alice looked away, she suddenly felt sick.
"No."
Felix’s voice remained calm. "I’m afraid yes."
He pointed toward the screen. "She works for Silas."
The office beca silent.
Everything suddenly made sense in her head. The conversations. The questions. The coincidences. The repeated encounters. The interest in her career. The curiosity about her boss.
The way Wendy always seed to know exactly what subject to steer discussions toward.
Alice covered her mouth. "Oh God."
Dayo remained quiet. His anger wasn’t directed at Alice. That much was obvious.
If anything, he looked annoyed at himself.
Which was sohow worse.
Felix noticed it imdiately."I know that look."
Dayo didn’t answer.
"You shouldn’t."
"I should."
"No."
Felix closed the laptop halfway.
"You really shouldn’t."
Dayo looked at him.
"I missed it."
Felix shook his head.
"No. You didn’t."
"I literally missed it."
"You missed one operative."
"I missed four."
That made Alice look up.
"Four?"
Felix nodded.
"Actually more than four."
The room beca quiet again.
Dayo’s eyes narrowed.
"What do you an more than four?"
Felix reopened the laptop. A new set of files appeared. This ti the nas were familiar.
Valerie.
Wayne.
Urich.
Alice.
Other people at their label, Employees. Executives. Artists. Senior staff. People connected to JD Records.
Felix turned the screen toward them. then he exhaled.
"I found sothing I should have found months ago."
Nobody interrupted.
Felix continued.
"When we gained access to parts of Silas’s infrastructure, we focused on financial tracking, surveillance systems, communication channels and intelligence gathering."
Dayo already knew where this was going.
His expression darkened.
"We didn’t examine personnel allocation deeply enough."
"Exactly."
Alice looked between them.
Neither man seed happy.
Felix clicked another file.
A list appeared. Code nas.Assignnts. Monitoring objectives.Targets.
Alice’s stomach sank further as she read the nas."No way."
Felix nodded."I’m afraid so." He pointed at the screen.
"Every major executive around Dayo had soone assigned to them."
The words landed heavily.
Alice felt cold. "What?"
"Yes Observers." Felix zood in. "People placed near them."
The room felt increasingly uncomfortable.
"They weren’t necessarily spies in the movie sense. They were relationship assets."
"Friends, Romantic interests, Career advisors. Business contacts. ntors. Networking opportunities."
"People specifically trained to blend into soone’s life."
Alice imdiately thought about Wendy.
Everything clicked painfully to say the list.
Dayo stood and walked toward the window. The city stretched below. Cars moved through traffic. People crossed intersections. Life continued normally.
anwhile soone had spent years planting operatives around the people he trusted most. The realization irritated him more than he wanted to admit. Not because it surprised him. Because it felt personal.
Silas wasn’t attacking his company. Silas was inserting himself into people’s lives that he was responsible for. There was a difference. A significant difference.
Behind him, Felix continued. "The good news is we know where the leak ca from."
"The bad news is that Wendy wasn’t unique."
Alice slowly sat back down.
Her mind replayed every conversation.
Every drink.
Every casual discussion.
Every mont she thought she was simply talking to another human being.
None of it felt real anymore.
Dayo finally turned back toward them.
"Can we identify the others?"
Felix nodded.
"Most of them."
"How many?"
Felix hesitated.
That hesitation alone was enough. Dayo already knew he wasn’t going to like the answer.
"Seven confird."
The room fell silent.
"Seven?"
"Yes seven."
Alice stared. "Seven people assigned to monitor JD Records?"
Felix nodded. "At minimum."
Dayo rubbed his forehead. For several seconds nobody spoke. Then he laughed once. A short humorless laugh. The kind that appeared when frustration beca absurd.
Alice looked surprised. "You think this is funny?"
"No."
"Then why are you laughing?"
Dayo shook his head. "Because Silas never does anything halfway."
That was true.
Everybody knew it.
Silas didn’t believe in small plans.
He believed in overwhelming preparation.
Layers.
Backups.
Insurance policies.
Contingencies.
If he wanted information, he built systems, he wanted leverage, he built networks, he wanted visibility, he created entire ecosystems around a target.
The problem wasn’t that Silas had assigned one operative.
The problem was that Dayo suddenly realized how long this had probably been happening.
Years.
Possibly years.
That thought irritated him.
A lot.
Alice noticed. "You seem angry."
"I’m very angry."
She looked down.
"I’m sorry."
Dayo imdiately shook his head. "Not at you."
"You should be."
"No."
The answer ca instantly.
Firmly.
Without hesitation.
Alice looked surprised.
Dayo continued.
"You got manipulated."
"That’s different."
"I still talked."
"Because you’re human and you were hurting hell even I would talk it was a stranger after all."
The words hung in the air.
Alice stared at him.
Dayo rarely talked like that. Yet here he was.
Calmly removing bla from her shoulders.
"You trusted soone. Most people do."
"I should have known better."
"You should have had the freedom to live your life without wondering whether every person you et works for an intelligence network."
Alice laughed despite herself. When he put it that way, it sounded ridiculous. Because it was ridiculous. Yet sohow it had happened.
Dayo looked at her carefully. "I an this. You aren’t carrying this alone."
Alice nodded slowly.
The guilt remained.
But it felt lighter. Felix closed the laptop again. "First priority is simple."
Alice looked at him. "What?"
"You cut contact with Wendy completely."
Alice nodded imdiately.
"Already done."
"No calls."
"No ssages."
"No etings."
"No curiosity."
"No closure conversation."
"No final discussion."
Alice gave him a look.
"You sound like you’ve done this before."
Felix smiled.
"More tis than I’d like."
That answer sohow wasn’t reassuring.
Dayo finally returned to his chair.
His anger was settling now.
Alice looked toward him. "So what happens now?"
Dayo thought about it then answered honestly. "Now?"
"Now I get even more careful."
That answer didn’t surprise either of them.
It was exactly what Dayo would do.
Alice folded her arms.
"I was hoping for sothing more dramatic."
Felix laughed.
"That’s the dramatic version."
She couldn’t argue with that.
For Dayo, caution was practically a superpower.
If he was becoming more careful, sobody sowhere was about to have a difficult week.
The conversation shifted after that.
The tension slowly eased.
Alice spent another twenty minutes explaining everything she could rember. Every eting. Every conversation. Every location. Every detail about Wendy.
Felix docunted everything. Tis. Dates. Descriptions. Behavioral patterns. Nothing was dismissed or ignored.
By the end of it, they had a surprisingly detailed profile.
More than enough to understand what had happened.
When they finally finished, Alice stood.
She looked exhausted.
Emotionally drained.
ntally exhausted.
And slightly embarrassed.
Dayo noticed."You okay?"
She smiled weakly. "I’ll survive."
"I know you’re stronger than you look."
A brief silence followed.
Then Alice looked at him. "You really aren’t angry?"
The question was quiet.
More vulnerable than anything she’d asked all afternoon.
Dayo answered just as quietly."No."
She searched his face. Looking for sothing maybe dishonesty,disappointnt or hidden frustration but she found none.
Only sincerity.
Eventually she nodded."Thank you."
Then she left.
The office door closed softly behind her.
The room beca quiet.For several monts neither Dayo nor Felix spoke. Eventually Felix leaned back.
"Well."
Dayo nodded.
"Well."
"That could have gone worse."
"It definitely could have."
Felix studied him.
"You feel better?"
Dayo thought about it.
Then nodded.
"Actually yes."
That surprised him.
More than he expected.
Because the situation itself wasn’t good.
In fact, it was objectively terrible. Yet sohow he felt better. The reason beca obvious after a mont.
The leak hadn’t co from betrayal.
It had co from trust Misplaced trust and Manipulated trust.Those were very different things.
Felix seed to reach the sa conclusion."Your people are clean."
Dayo nodded slowly. "My people are clean."
The statent carried weight.
Months of uncertainty disappeared with those words.
The people who helped build JD Records remained exactly who he thought they were.
Loyal.
Capable.
Human.
Felix stretched. "So, what now?"
Dayo looked at him. "Now we prepare."
Felix grinned.
That answer sounded far more familiar. And far more dangerous.
Neither man said it out loud. They didn’t need to. Because sowhere far away, Michael and Silas still believed they were controlling the board.
What they didn’t realize was that the leak had just been sealed.
The uncertainty had just disappeared.
And for the first ti in weeks, Dayo knew exactly where his enemies had entered the ga.
Which ant the next move belonged to him.
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