Page 143 of Silent Target

The first pages contain names of cabinet secretaries, military commanders, judges, governors, and foreign intelligence directors.

Some are dead.

Some retired.

Some still hold office.

Near the back, one page has been updated recently.

Walter Graves’s name is circled in red.

Below it, someone has written an encrypted access designation.

Caleb goes still.

“What is that?” I ask.

Fathom looks at Rook.

“It belongs to one of Shadow Division’s emergency relays.”

Silence fills the aisle.

The designation shouldn’t exist anywhere outside the team.

Someone gave it to the First Circle.

Or the First Circle has been inside Shadow Division’s communications from the beginning.

30

CALEB

No one speaks.

The emergency relay code sits beneath Walter Graves’s name like a blade aimed at the team.

Rook closes the ledger.

“Who had access?”

“Every current member,” Fathom says. “Sarah. Cutter. Mac had an older version.”

Cobra looks toward Mac.

Mac doesn’t flinch. “If I gave Graves the code, why would he need to torture me?”

“Maybe because it was changed after you disappeared,” Shark says.

“It was,” Fathom confirms.

Rook’s expression remains unreadable.

“We don’t accuse anyone without proof.”

The answer is immediate.

Final.