Angela Merritt was mid-forties, plain clothes, no badge visible. She walked in, scanned the room once, and sat in the chair Colton pulled out without being asked.
"I have twenty minutes before my supervisor notices I'm off route," she said. "So I'll be fast."
Nobody offered her anything. Nobody sat down except Francis.
"Cross has a source inside Okafor's committee," she said. "A staffer named Brenden Youde. He's been feeding Cross the committee's internal strategy for six weeks. Every question they planned to ask you. Every witness list. Every procedural move Okafor's team prepared."
"You have proof of this," Francis said.
"I have emails. Youde's personal account, not his government one. He thought that made it safer." She opened her bag and put a flash drive on the table. "That's a c
