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“More than once.”

His attention sharpened. “Through your systems?”

“Sometimes. Not consistently enough for direct tracking, but enough to reach locations that should have been isolated.”

“Could they predict you?”

I thought about the final route. The waiting protocol. The way someone had anticipated choices I had not yet made.

“They did.”

That answer bothered him.

Talia leaned forward. “There’s more.”

Anik looked at her. “Show me.”

She brought up the Ghost identifiers.

Not mine alone. Several.

Operational codes buried inside reproductive records.

Anik’s face changed. “What are those?”

“Ghost designations.”

His gaze snapped to me. “You are certain.”

“I recognize the structure.”

“Why would covert identities appear in reproductive archives?”

“We do not know.” Talia added, “But the records associated with them have the same kinds of irregularities.”

Anik studied the entries in silence, his gaze moving between the sample chains, compatibility histories, and deceased-warrior classifications.

“Sample transfers,” he said at last. “Altered compatibility values. Dead warriors appearing where they should not.”

“All connected to the same group of irregular records,” Talia said.

His voice lowered. “So someone has been moving between systems that should never touch.”

“That is what the evidence indicates,” I said.

The room went quiet. Not the abrupt silence of a threat. A slower one. The kind that came when too many pieces finally began touching.

Talia pulled up Sera’n’s reconstructed project. “My supervisor was already tracking this before I ever saw the pattern.”

Anik read through the fragmentary notes. “Where is he now?”

“We don’t know.”

“You think someone took him.”

“Maybe.” Talia pressed her lips together. “We don’t even know whether he’s alive.”

Anik gave a single nod.