Calloway doesn't wait long to respond.
Two days after the consortium meeting, Mira calls me in a panic, voice unsteady in a way I haven't heard since our mother died.
"Someone showed up at my office today," she says. "Asking questions about my research, my computer access, whether I've been using company resources for personal projects. My supervisor pulled me into a meeting about it, said corporate compliance flagged unusual activity on my work account."
My stomach drops. "Did they say who filed the complaint?"
"No. Just that it came from an external audit request, unusually specific, timestamped exactly to when I was cross-referencing those charity ownership records last week." Her voice cracks slightly. "Sevric, I think they know. About the research, about helping you."
I close my
