Official briefings.
Captain Harold Vance.
She said the name.
Rebecca nodded slowly.
“That sounded like him.”
Marcus continued playback.
Keller asked:
“And the split?”
The voice answered:
“Same as always. Thirty for Price. Thirty upstairs. Rest is yours.”
Nobody spoke.
Nia’s anger became cold.
Not profiling alone.
Not improvised theft.
They had been expecting her.
Or someone fitting her cover.
Which raised another question.
“How did Vance know about the case?” Marcus asked.
Rebecca looked toward Nia.
“He mentioned a case.”
The black evidence case in the rear floorboard.
Only a handful of people knew it existed.
Federal team.
Prosecutor.
Judge who signed operational orders.
One confidential informant.
Nia said:
“We have a leak.”
Marcus shook his head.
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“Vance could have general information from someone at the station.”
“No.”
Nia pointed at the screen.
“Purple coat.”
“Black truck.”
“That is me.”
Rebecca leaned back.
“Then Operation Lantern is compromised.”
Nia stared at the paused image of Keller’s face.
Something else bothered her.
“He still approached.”
Marcus understood.
“If Vance warned him she might be federal…”
“Not exactly.”
Rebecca finished the thought.
“He believed he could control the evidence afterward.”
Nia looked toward the body-camera indicator captured in the mirror.
“He thought the camera belonged to them.”
Marcus nodded.
“And now it belongs to us.”
Chapter Four: The Leak
The federal task force had fourteen people with knowledge of Nia’s exact cover.
By sunrise, no one trusted anyone.
Phones were collected voluntarily.
Access logs reviewed.
Operational emails audited.
The judge who authorized the sting was excluded quickly.
Rebecca’s office narrowed its own personnel.
FBI internal security quietly joined.
Nia hated every minute.
The worst part of a compromised operation was not discovering someone had betrayed you.
It was watching innocent colleagues realize suspicion applied equally until evidence removed it.
Marcus took it personally.
Operation Lantern had been his command.
“If somebody inside my unit fed Vance your description—”
Nia interrupted.
“Don't finish sentences before evidence.”
He looked at her.
“That advice sounds familiar.”
“You taught it to me.”
“Annoying when it comes back.”
By noon, investigators found the first lead.
The leak had not originated inside the FBI.
A federal clerk had sent a routine request to the county camera vendor under sealed authority but accidentally included an internal routing code identifying McKetric County as subject to enhanced preservation.
Someone at the vendor mentioned it to a former employee.
That former employee was Lieutenant Price’s cousin.
The cousin told Price federal investigators were mirroring certain cameras.
But Price apparently misunderstood when the mirror would begin.
He believed the federal duplication started after footage uploaded at the end of a shift.
Not live.
That explained the deletion attempts.
It did not explain Nia.
Then Dylan Laam’s hidden station footage produced another answer.
At 10:58 p.m., forty-two minutes before Keller approached Nia, Captain Vance entered Laam’s Gas & Go wearing civilian clothes.
He bought coffee.
He remained inside six minutes.
At 11:03, a dark sedan entered the lot.
A man stepped out and handed Vance an envelope.
They spoke beside the ice machine.
The camera had no audio.
But the man’s face was clear.
Rebecca identified him.
Calvin Ross.