Cap leaned in. “That gets us where?”
Ghost highlighted a stretch of interstate and a cluster of industrial buildings near it. “It gets us here.”
Ranger pushed off the wall. “That’s inside city limits.”
Ghost nodded. “The rural sites are holding points. The city sites are processing points. Paper. Money. Transfers. The ring doesn’t just move bodies. It moves permissions.”
Cap’s expression didn’t change, but I knew that look. He was already deciding what we could hit without blowing our cover with local law.
“Processing points,” Cap repeated. “Who owns them.”
Ghost flipped the screen to a corporate filing. “Shell companies. Layered. Some are out of state. Some are local. But one set kept popping up.”
He zoomed in on a name. Not a person. A firm.
A law firm.
I didn’t know much about that world. Suits and paper and handshake deals. But I knew what it meant when Ghost’s voice went flat.
“Law firm,” Brutus said, like the words tasted wrong.
“Not a random one,” Ghost replied. “They handle acquisitions. Contracts. Transportation compliance. Civil litigation that keeps people busy while other things happen in the dark.”
Ranger’s gaze sharpened. “Front.”
“Cleaner than a warehouse,” Ghost said. “Harder to hit. Harder to trace. But it’s connected.”
Cap exhaled slowly. “Name it.”
Ghost said the firm’s name. I won’t pretend it meant anything to me. It was just a name.
Until Ghost clicked again and pulled up security footage.
A lobby feed. Grainy. From a camera mounted high in a corner. People moving in and out. A guard at the front desk. A woman behind the desk.
She was younger than I expected. Hair pulled back. Glasses. A blouse that looked like she’d ironed it herself because nobody else would bother. She wasn’t dressed like money. She was dressed like someone who needed to keep her job.
She leaned down to grab something, then stood and turned slightly, passing a file to a man in a suit who barely looked at her.
I didn’t care.
Not at first.
Then I saw Ghost pause the video.
Not for a better angle.
Not for a face match.
He paused it because she was on screen.
Brutus noticed too. “What are we looking at.”
Ghost didn’t answer immediately. His fingers tapped the desk once. Twice.
“She’s always there,” he said finally.
Ranger blinked. “The secretary?”
