“Mila,” I answered, approaching her as Sergei entered the office. “Sergei said you found something.”
“Yes, I did,” she confirmed, nodding.
She turned her laptop away from herself, showing us the screen.
“There seems to be a pattern in this intel. It looks too organized to even be a crime. Look at the dates of the entries and even those names,” she said.
I looked through the dates. Sergei nodded beside me.
“It looks planted,” I said.
“Like someone orchestrated it,” Sergei added.
“Exactly my point,” she said. “We have two lines of info. Let’s examine them against each other. Cross-check.”
“Okay. Let’s do that,” Sergei said, opening the laptop bag in his hand and placing the laptop on the table.
I took a seat in one of the chairs by my desk as Sergei and Mila worked.
Minutes later, Mila declared, “It’s a sophisticated frame-up.”
“The pattern wasn’t random,” Sergei revealed. “Someone is using Alina’s old credentials from the Russian clinic to send information. As a cover.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“To outsiders, it looks like she’s the mole. That’s why the location I got was right here in the manor,” Mila added.
Relief.
That was what I felt as I heard their conclusion. It felt good to know that Alina might not be guilty. But my faded stress seemed to rise again as I thought of how everything was still tied to her.
“She might be innocent. Or she might have an ally,” I said.
“Someone might be linked to her without her knowledge at all,” Sergei pointed out.
“We’ll find the answer,” Mila assured, nodding confidently. “Very soon.”
I left the office and went upstairs. I wasn’t settled enough to sit in my chair, so I didn’t.
If Alina were truly innocent, I’d be happy about it. But I wondered how things would be between us after I kept questioning her loyalty.
I don’t even know if we still have a relationship right now.
But then, duty calls.
I couldn’t be thinking about how I felt about her when there were things to be tied up in the Morozov case.
Could she really have an ally?
The existence of different possibilities was upsetting. I wished I could just snap my fingers and all the answers would come up. I wanted to know Alina’s position in all of this. I needed to find out.
There’s only one way to know.
I stormed out of my office and into her bedroom. She was still awake. She turned away from the window, and I couldn’t tell what she was thinking as he gazed at me.
“Who is helping you?” I demanded.
She totally turned away from the window and faced me.
