Nikolas' head turned sharply toward the ringing device. He picked up the phone mechanically and took a breath before answering.
"Don't play mild games with me." His mouth twisted into a humorless scoff.
"You know me better than that." His voice lowered.
"I don't have the patience for games." A brief pause.
Then his mouth curved slightly nott a smile but something sharper.
"Give me something useful."
His glassy blue eyes moved across the room. It stopped in the middle the agents stood, in a mixture of senior and junior agents standing before him.
"A mix of senior and junior agents was placed in charge of this investigation." His voice carried authority with ease.
"And after three days..."
His eyes narrowed at them, ".. they still had nothing to show me."
"Not a clue."
"Not a lead."
"Nothing."
The words carried enough authority to silence the room completely. His glassy blue eyes moved from one face to another, leaving chills in their wake.
Then his mouth curved slightly, the faintest curve touched his mouth.
It wasn't warmth.
It wasn't amusement.
It was something much more dangerous.
"Come in."
The door opened slightly abd man stood there and halfway the light in the hallway stayed on him .
He was Leonardo's senior intelligence analyst.
His sharp eyes immediately moved through the room.
First to Nikolas. to the mixed group of junior agents then to the few senior agents standing farther behind surrounding the operations area.
His eyes took in every reaction, the way shoulders appeared tensed, a few gazes lowered and light nervous movements around and The anger too.
Yet he didn't react.
And then; his eyes went straight ahead.
He simply brushed his shoulders back and stepped inside with practiced ease because he had walked into situations like this many times before.
So what was tension? Tension didn't scare him a bit. He had worked around men like Nikolas long enough to understand that fear had no place in an intelligence room.
He knew these men they were like brothers together in the same space. He knew Nikolas anger and most importantly—He knew his job.
An analyst's job wasn't to panic. It was to observe.
To studied. To find what everyone else had missed and connected what others couldn't see.
He walked with precision, not with fear or even a shade of doubt.
His uniform was different from the others.
His identification badge sat clearly against his chest, marked with his senior intelligence rank and the
A small silver insignia rested beside it, setting him apart from the regular agents.
With the careful steps of someone who had spent years watching, studying and waiting for the exact moment to speak.
He wasn't there to chase people.
He was there to understand them.
And he had found something.
With the careful confidence of a man who had spent years observing before speaking.
"Sir..." The pause wasn't hesitation but patience and respect for the authority standing above him.
Nikolas slowly turned.
The analyst swallowed once but remained where he had stopped unflinching "We may have been looking in the wrong place." That statement was uttered without fear of whether it would worsen the situation or not.
The room became still, Nkolas fixed those same eyes on him. 'Glassy blue eyes' that looked almost calm but was it?
One would think it was controlled anger but it was Storms of rage burning beneath it.
"Explain."
The analyst nodded. "We've been assuming the accomplice was hiding somewhere connected to the warehouse or the people who helped him."
He placed several files and photographs on the table.
"But what if that was never his plan?"
Nikolas' eyes narrowed, The analyst continued carefully. "What if tthe warehouse was only a distraction?"
Nikolas let out a thin breath. His stare stretched across the room, sharp enough to make even the most experienced agents uncomfortable.
The entire room felt colder, not one foot moved an inch.
Nikolas walked toward the table. Each step caused tension to rise around him.
Some agents moved slightly out of his way but the analyst remained in his spot.
Rooted, without a hint of fear.
Nikolas reached the table and looked down at the fileNikolas reached the table and looked down at the files.
"Matteo, continue."
There was familiarity in the name. Not friendship but recognition and trust built from years of working together.
Nikolas pulled out a chair and sat at the head of the table. His cold eyes remained fixed on the analyst.
"I thought you had reviewed this before the investigation started."
His voice was controlled again... barely.
"You and your teams reviewed every possible angle."
"That's how we found him."
He paused. "We followed the pattern, tracked his movements and almost..."
His eyes hardened, The silence that followed seemed to stretch through every heartbeat in the room.
"...got him."
.His jaw tightened. "Until he disappeared." Nikolas leaned back slightly, it highlighted his lean figure.
"So why are you giving me a new theory now?"
The analyst locked eyes with him. A knowing
settlement dawn on him because the question was fair And he had an answer.
Nikolas gave him a small nod.
An order to continue.
The analyst waited for one more second, even after receiving permission to continue, he remained standing until Nikolas's eyes gave him another silent command.
"Speak."
Then, as smoothly as possible, he pushed forward a timeline of the suspect's movements. "I don't think this was an escape."
The room stilled and Nikolas' gaze sharpened.
The analyst continued completely undaunted. "I think it was planned."
Several agents frowned, is not because they didn't respect the analyst ideas.
But because every person in that room understood how their investigations worked, The organization operated on carefully established theories.
They studied a theory, checked it, challenged it and
They looked for discrepancies, evidence was reviewed, discrepancies examined, and conclusions reached.
And only when everything made sense did they agreed on one theory, they followed it and settled on it until the facts proved otherwise.
That process had led them to the warehouse how that process had almost delivered the accomplice into their hands.
But now, something wasn't right. The analyst pointed toward the photographs. "Look at this."
He pushed one forward in front of Nikolas. "Every time we got close to him, he made himself visible."
Another photograph. "He walked directly into camera angles."
Another. "He stayed in public places longer than necessary."
Another photograph was pushed forward. "He practically wanted us to notice him."
The agents remained around the table, careful not to stand too close to their furious superior, but unwilling to miss what was being displayed. They were all watching keenly.
Matteo's finger stopped on the final photograph.
"What if he wanted us to find the warehouse?"
Nikolas's eyes remained fixed on the image.
"To make us believe we were getting closer..."
He paused, his voice becoming slower
"...while he prepared another way out?"
For several seconds, Nikos simply stared at him.
Silence filled the room, slowly realization began to spreadacross the faces around the table in and between everyone.
The analyst looked up.
"The fear."
"The running."
"The nervous behavior."
"I don't think any of it was real."
His voice lowered, "I think he wanted us to follow him."
The room became deathly quiet because in a matter of minutes, the entire situation had begun to look different..
"He wasn't leading us to the mastermind."
The analyst's eyes hardened. "For a fact..."A heavy silence followed. 'He was distracting us."
The analyst pointed toward the final photograph still in front of Nikolas
"He was bait."
The words settled across the room and something changed in Nikolas' expression.
He didn't move.
Didn't blink.
Didn't speak.
But the rage shifted now he was thinking.
The analyst continued carefully.
"Someone wanted us focused on this man."
"Someone wanted us chasing him." He tapped the timeline
"So while we spent all our resources hunting him..."
He exhaled slowly, "...the real people behind the attack disappeared."
Full understanding flashed across several faces.
Even the agents who had doubted the theory moments ago were now staring at the evidence differently. Those who had already suspected something was wrong suddenly saw the pattern.
The analyst nodded.
"Someone made sure the accomplice escaped."
"He served his purpose. He showed himself."
"He made us believe we were getting closer."
"And when we were fully invested..." He hesitated,
His eyes briefly lowered.
Then he continued, swiftly landing the hit. "He vanished."
The room remained silent. His eyes lowered to the files, Matteo's expression changed slightly when he looked up again. There was something he had been reluctant to say, something that was too strong to be ignored.
"Just like what happened months ago."
The room changed.
Everyone knew what he meant, it was the investigation from last year.
The one that was still not completely solved.