Chapter 160: Unauthorized Copies

She was already inside one of the consultation rooms when they arrived. Marek recognized her at once, although she was wearing different clothes and carrying another dark bag beside her. He did not know whether it was the same one from the kidnapping because he had been more interested in keeping several men from punching him at the time.

Irial stood after seeing them. “Newton.”

“Hello,” Marek answered.

Her eyes moved toward the others, stopping at Rhovan for a moment before returning to Marek.

“I wasn’t sure you would come.”

“I wasn’t sure either.”

That seemed to surprise her, but Marek did not see any reason to pretend he had been eager to meet.

They took the available seats. The upper half of the room’s walls was transparent, allowing anyone inside to see the main hall and the officers walking around outside, while the door remained open. Marek noticed those details before paying attention to Irial again.

She had both hands resting over the bag on her lap.

Marek waited for her to speak. Well, he had not come to meet her to guess things.

After several seconds, Irial said, “My sister was contacted two nights ago.”

The atmosphere inside the room changed.

Eren leaned forward slightly. “Contacted by whom?”

“I don’t know. She came home and found something pushed under her door.”

Irial opened the bag and took out a folded sheet before placing it on the table. She did not slide it toward them, though everyone could already see that part of the page contained rows of numbers and several printed references.

A short message had been written underneath.

RETURN WHAT YOU COPIED.

Marek’s eyes remained on those words for a while.

There was also one reference number circled near the lower portion of the sheet.

“My sister has never seen this document before,” Irial explained. “She doesn’t work for the same company I do, and I’ve never discussed any of these records with her.”

“What is the circled number?” Marek asked.

“An internal reference belonging to one of the payment schedules I copied.”

Kellan leaned forward to get a better look, although Silas pulled him back by the shoulder before he got too close.

“What?” Kellan asked.

“If this becomes evidence later, stop putting your face over it.”

Kellan did not argue and just leaned back.

Marek ignored their interaction and kept his attention on Irial.

“How many people at your workplace could know that reference?” he asked.

“I don’t know exactly.”

“More than a few?”

“Probably,” she replied, biting her lip.

“So whoever left this might be someone from your workplace, or someone who got the information from them.”

Irial nodded.

That was already more complicated than Marek wanted. He leaned back in his chair and asked the next question before she could explain anything else. “Did you have permission to copy these records?”

Irial became quiet.

“I was authorized to access them,” she eventually said.

“That’s not the same thing.”

“No.”

“Did you have permission to make copies?”

Irial hesitated before shaking her head. “Not for personal use.” ℴℴ𝗺

Kellan rubbed his face. Nadia looked toward Marek. Meanwhile, Rhovan said nothing.

Marek was starting to understand why Irial had been so unwilling to explain herself during their first meeting.

She continued before anyone could tell her how bad that sounded. “The records were part of the accounts I was assigned to reconcile. I had access to the payment schedules, service summaries, and supporting records because they were part of my work. I started making copies after I noticed that several entries had changed after I reviewed them.”

Eren’s interest became much more obvious after hearing that. “What changed?”

Irial shifted her attention toward him. “Some service quantities. Some provider allocations. A few supporting schedules were replaced, but the payment totals remained the same.”

“Could they have been corrections?”

“That’s what I initially thought,” Irial replied.

“What made you think otherwise?”

Marek glanced at Eren.

The conversation had started turning toward accounting much faster than he wanted.

Irial opened the bag again, but Marek stopped her before she could take anything else out.

“Wait.”

She looked at him.

“Before you show us every document you stole—”

“I copied them.”

“Without permission.”

Irial closed her mouth.

Marek continued, “Why are you coming to us with this? You already spoke to the CMS. You could have brought the threat and those records to them.”

“I reported what happened to my sister.”

“And?”

“They recorded it. They said they can investigate the threat, but if I want them to connect it to my workplace or the kidnapping, I have to explain what these records are and why anyone would want them.”

“Then, explain it.”

“I don’t know what they prove yet.”

Her answer made Marek pause.

Irial looked around the table and continued, “I know the entries changed. I know someone started checking who had accessed the older versions after I began comparing them. Several men tried taking my bag, and now somebody has gone to my sister’s home. I don’t know how far any of this reaches.”

“And you think we do?”

“No.” Her answer came so plainly, and she looked toward Marek. “I think you don’t.”

Marek frowned. “What?”

“You don’t know anyone involved.”

Rhovan tilted his head slightly.

Irial continued before Marek could ask again. “When those men tried taking me, you didn’t know who I was. You helped me anyway. Afterward, you saw that they wanted the bag, but none of you tried opening it. You didn’t demand to know what I was carrying before letting me leave.”

“I thought about asking.”

“But you didn’t.”

“That doesn’t make us trustworthy.”

“I don’t know if you’re trustworthy.”

Marek raised one eyebrow.

Irial did not look embarrassed about saying it. “But I trust what you did.”

For a few seconds, Marek had no answer to that.

She then explained that almost everyone else she could approach had some connection, direct or otherwise, to the contractor she worked for, the clinics receiving the payments, the offices administering the public-health programs, or people involved in Lantern Verge’s redevelopment. She had no idea which connections mattered, and because Marek’s group had only recently arrived from Earth, they were among the few people she knew who had no obvious relationship to any of them.

Rhovan crossed his arms. “Being ignorant of local affairs is rarely a qualification.”

“In this situation, I find it useful at least,” Irial said.

Rhovan thought about it for a moment. “I can respect that.”

Marek gave him a look and returned his attention to Irial. “What exactly do you want from us?”

Her fingers tightened slightly around the edge of the bag. “My sister doesn’t want to leave her home, but I don’t know if whoever sent this message knows where my parents live too. I thought keeping quiet would stop anyone else from getting involved. I was wrong.”

“And the records?”

“I want to know whether what I found actually means anything before I decide what to do with them.”

Eren spoke from beside Silas. “What do you think they mean?”

Irial glanced toward him. “That money is being recorded for services that don’t match what was actually provided.”

Marek remembered the broadcast from the previous night.

The Equal Standard had been discussing public-health spending inside Lantern Verge. Residents claimed that reported spending did not match what clinics and communities were receiving, while several contractors argued that the figures were being misunderstood because some services could not be seen through basic clinic statistics.

He had stopped paying attention because the whole controversy had nothing to do with Tomas or the reason he came to Libra.

Now, Irial was sitting across from him.

“Your company operates in Lantern Verge?” he asked.

“Yes.”