The safe house no longer felt like a sanctuary. Every corner seemed to harbor whispers, every shadow a potential threat. Selene paced the narrow room, her mind racing through every conversation, every glance, every hint of hesitation she'd noticed in recent days. The trap had only deepened the mystery—revealing Rafe was pressured, but not the true mole. Someone else was lurking among them, cloaked in lies.
She gathered the team around the cracked table, the dim light casting long shadows across their faces. The recorder hummed quietly between them—a silent witness to the growing distrust.
"We're running out of time," Selene said, voice steady but heavy. "Harrow's forces are closing in, and we can't afford to lose ground because of a traitor in our midst."
Lina swallowed hard, eyes flicking nervously. "We need to tighten security. Every move tracked, every message scanned."
Calder rubbed his jaw. "But that only breeds paranoia. If we turn on each other, Harrow wins without firing a shot."
Marrow's gaze was sharp, piercing the silence. "We don't have the luxury of trust. Not anymore."
Selene nodded slowly, acknowledging the harsh truth. "We'll have to watch and wait. Observe reactions, gather evidence. We catch the mole by their mistakes."
Over the next two days, the safe house became a pressure cooker of tension. Selene noticed the smallest shifts—the way Lina lingered too long at the comms, how Calder avoided eye contact, how Marrow's calm sometimes cracked under scrutiny.
They set traps within the traps: false messages sent to test responses, subtle questions slipped into conversations, even a dummy data file planted in a secluded terminal.
Late one night, as rain pounded the city outside, Selene reviewed surveillance footage alone. The flickering grainy images revealed a shadow moving just beyond the camera's edge—someone accessing the comms when no one else should have been near.
Her pulse quickened.
She zoomed in, enhancing the grainy frame.
It was Calder.
Selene didn't confront him immediately. Instead, she observed, watching his every move, noting how his steps faltered when she entered the room, how his fingers twitched nervously near the keypad.
The next evening, the team gathered for a meeting. Selene's eyes locked with Calder's, cold and unyielding.
"We know who's been leaking information," she announced, voice low but unwavering. "Calder."
The room froze. Calder's face hardened, but his eyes betrayed no surprise.
Selene pressed on, "We need to understand why. Are you working for Harrow, or is there something else?"
Calder's jaw clenched. "You don't know the whole story."
He stood abruptly, pacing. "Harrow has something on me—a family I've never told you about. They threatened them to keep me in line. I never wanted this. But I had no choice."
Lina's eyes softened. "Then help us. Help us take them down."
Calder's shoulders slumped. "I will. But I need protection—for them."
The revelation shifted the fragile alliance within the team. Selene proposed a plan to fake Calder's continued betrayal, feeding false information back to Harrow, turning the mole's position into a weapon.
As they prepared, Selene's comm-link buzzed again with a chilling message:
"Trust is a poison. Your downfall begins now."
She clenched her fists, eyes burning with fierce resolve.
The battle for truth had become a battle for survival—inside and out.