The phrase stayed with me.
The package.
Everyone had used it.
Nolan.
Elias.
The people behind Northbridge.
Yet nobody had explained what it actually meant.
Dalton closed the interview room door.
“Start talking.”
Elias looked at her.
“I've told you what I know.”
“You said Nolan wasn't the source of the most important information.”
“I said he wasn't the only source.”
“Who was the other person?”
“I don't know their name.”
I leaned forward.
“You must know something.”
Elias looked at me.
“The source had access to information Nolan couldn't obtain.”
“From where?”
“Inside your professional circle.”
My stomach tightened.
“Military?”
“Yes.”
Dalton's expression hardened.
“Name.”
“I don't know.”
“Then how did you communicate?”
“Through Nolan.”
That answer made no sense.
“If Nolan was the middleman, why say he wasn't the source?”
“Because the source gave him information.”
“What information?”
“The location.”
“Of what?”
“The package.”
I looked at Dalton.
She understood.
The hard drive wasn't the original prize.
It was evidence of the operation.
The real package had been something else.
Agent Harris joined us.
He had reviewed the files Elias provided.
“We may have a problem.”
“What?”
He placed a document on the table.
The package was identified as a specific set of procurement records.
Records concerning a classified defense project.
My stomach dropped.
“I worked on that project.”
“Yes.”
“I never had the full documents.”
“Apparently someone did.”
“Who?”
“We don't know.”
Elias spoke.
“The source.”
Dalton turned to him.
“You're telling us someone inside the system gave Nolan access to classified procurement records.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Money.”
I looked at him.
“Who paid?”
“Marcus.”
The room went silent.
Agent Harris placed another document down.
A payment.
A large one.
The recipient wasn't Nolan.
It was someone else.
The name was partially obscured by a legal entity.
But the bank account belonged to a person.
I recognized the surname.
My heart stopped.
“No.”
Dalton looked at me.
“You know them?”
I nodded.
“It's impossible.”
“Who?”
I said the name.
A senior civilian official who had worked alongside my command for years.
Someone who had attended briefings.
Someone I had trusted.
Agent Harris looked at the documents.
“That's the connection.”
I couldn't speak.
The source had been inside the system.
And I had unknowingly worked around that person for years.
Dalton asked Elias, “Did Nolan know the source personally?”
“Yes.”
“Did Blair know?”
“No.”
“Was the source ever inside her home?”
Elias hesitated.
“Once.”
My skin prickled.
“When?”
“I don't know.”
“What did the person do?”
“Met Nolan.”
I thought about the people who had visited our townhouse.
Friends.
Colleagues.
Neighbors.
Business associates.
My mind moved through every face.
Then one memory surfaced.
A dinner.
Four years earlier.
The official had been at our house.
Nolan had introduced him as a colleague.
He had stayed late.
I remembered him asking about my deployment schedule.
I had answered casually.
Now the memory felt poisonous.
Dalton saw my expression.
“You remember.”
“Yes.”
“What did he ask?”
I told her.
She wrote it down.
Agent Harris stood.
“We need to verify this before we act.”
“Of course.”
But I knew.
I knew the moment I remembered his questions.
He had asked about my access.
My travel.
My schedule.
The same things Nolan had asked.
Only more specifically.
That evening, federal agents contacted him.
He did not answer.
His office was empty.
His home was empty.
His phone was turned off.
He had disappeared.
Dalton called me.
“Don't go anywhere alone.”
“I won't.”
“I'm serious.”
“So am I.”
My mother was transferred to a rehabilitation facility.
Her recovery was going well.
She could walk short distances.
Her shoulder remained painful, but her strength was returning.
I visited her every evening.
One night she asked, “Have they found the other person?”
“Yes.”
She looked at me.
“Who?”
I told her.
She closed her eyes.
“I met him.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
I stared at her.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I didn't think anything of it.”
“What did he ask?”
She thought.
“He asked whether you kept important documents at home.”
My blood ran cold.
“What did you say?”
“That you kept everything at work.”
She looked at me.
“He seemed disappointed.”
I sat back.
That detail mattered.
The official had tested my mother too.
He had been probing the household from multiple directions.
Nolan wasn't acting alone.
He had help.
And someone had been trying to determine what information existed inside our home.
That night, Agent Harris called.
“We found the official.”
“Where?”
“Airport.”
“Was he leaving?”
“Yes.”
“Did he have anything?”
“A passport. Cash. Two phones.”
“Any documents?”
“No.”
I exhaled.
“Then what now?”
“We're bringing him in.”
The arrest happened before dawn.
By morning, the evidence was overwhelming.
He had received payments from Marcus Vale.
He had communicated with Nolan.
He had accessed restricted procurement records.
He had helped locate the package.
And he had lied repeatedly during the investigation.
But there was one final problem.
The original classified records were missing.
The hard drive contained copies.
The government needed the original source material to establish exactly what had been compromised.
And nobody knew where it was.
Then Nolan requested a meeting.
Dalton called me.
“He wants to speak with you.”
“Why?”
“He says he can tell us where the package is.”
I went to the interview room.
Nolan was thinner than I remembered.
The confidence was gone.
He looked exhausted.
When he saw me, his eyes filled.
“Blair.”
I sat across from him.
“Where is it?”
He looked down.
“I didn't have it.”
“You knew where it was.”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me.”
He swallowed.
“I was supposed to deliver it.”
“To whom?”
“Marcus.”
“Where?”
He hesitated.
Then whispered:
“Your mother's house.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
He shook his head.
“The package was hidden there before I attacked her.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 12: Nolan Finally Explained Why He Chose My Mother’s House, and the Hidden Package Connected His Betrayal to the Night Everything Broke
The Midnight Call That Turned My Husband’s Perfect Reputation Into the First Lie I Had to Prove
Part 11 of 20
