Chapter 166: Overlapping Discrepancies

Marek’s attention returned to the man. “You’re sure?”

“Pretty sure,” Silas answered.

Rafe checked the man’s position without turning toward him directly. “He could still be heading the same way we are.”

Marek considered that for a moment before looking toward Rhovan, expecting him to have already noticed something useful. Instead, the guy was still eating from the paper container he had bought earlier.

“Are you paying attention?” Marek asked.

Rhovan glanced at him. “Yes.”

“To the person who might be following us?”

“I haven’t decided whether he’s following us yet.” He took another piece of food from the container. “At the moment, he’s only someone who has appeared near us more than once.”

Marek looked at the food, then back at him. “You really can do both at the same time?”

“Quite easily.”

Marek argued no more and continued toward the second clinic with the others.

The facility was smaller than the first, occupying the lower floor of an older building near the edge of a redevelopment block.

Its public service board listed a mobile treatment program connected to several neighborhoods around Lantern Verge. Eren checked the service period and provider name while Marek read the posted schedule.

Marek compared the posted schedule with the details Eren had copied earlier. “This only runs on certain days.”

Eren unfolded his notes and checked the service period again. “The schedule Irial copied allocates service across a much broader period than what they’re advertising here. That doesn’t prove the billing is wrong, but I’d want the actual service logs before treating the two as consistent.”

Marek glanced toward the clinic entrance. “Which we’re not getting today.”

“No,” Eren said. “Not without turning this into something we already agreed we weren’t doing.”

A second notice stated that one mobile treatment unit had been out of service for repairs. A handwritten complaint was visible beneath the notice, partly covered by another sheet the clinic had put over it later.

Silas crouched slightly to read the dates without touching anything. “These notices overlap most of the period in Irial’s schedule.”

Eren came over and read the notice for himself. Unlike earlier, he did not start listing every harmless explanation he could think of.

Marek glanced at him. “Still not enough?”

“Not by itself,” Eren said. He checked the dates again before folding his notes. “But at this point, I’d want to see what they’re actually billing for. The services being reported and what we’re seeing here are starting to drift too far apart.”

Marek looked back at the clinic. Hearing that from Eren bothered him more than finding another strange notice had. Eren had spent most of the day trying to keep them from assuming the worst, so if even he was starting to question the billing itself, the discrepancies were becoming harder to dismiss.

A clinic could have service problems. A transport provider could have vehicles under repair. A company could move without updating every record connected to it.

Any one of those things could happen.

Several of them happening across the same group of payment schedules was the thing that was strange.

They left the clinic through the main entrance, and Marek checked the street almost on instinct. The man in the gray jacket was nowhere in sight.

“Maybe Silas was wrong,” he said, although even he did not sound convinced.

Silas gave him a flat look.

Marek raised one hand. “I said maybe.”

Rafe checked the route on his device before glancing ahead. “There’s one more public address nearby.”

Marek considered ending the visit there. They had already confirmed enough discrepancies to justify handing everything back to the CMS, and the longer they stayed, the more likely they were to attract attention.

He was about to say so when Eren showed him the final address.

Marek looked at the provider name and recognized it immediately. It was the same secondary company appearing across several of Irial’s schedules.

He stared at the screen for a moment.

Rafe checked the route and led them farther into Lantern Verge.

The road became busier before narrowing near another redevelopment block. Construction fencing covered one side, while the opposite side had older mixed-use buildings with shops below and apartments above. People moved through the area as usual, so Marek felt slightly better about checking the last address.

Marek was relieved to find another normal commercial building at the address. An empty warehouse would have made the whole thing feel much worse.

Eren checked the number. “This is it.”

Marek read the directory near the entrance.

The company was not listed.

“Maybe they moved from here too,” Marek said.

Rafe searched the public registry. “No relocation notice.”

Silas read through the directory again. “The registration reference still uses this address?”

Eren nodded.

Marek sighed. “Let’s check the public desk and leave.”

There was a small reception counter inside the building. The clerk confirmed that the company had rented office space there before, though the tenancy had ended some time ago.

Marek felt Eren stop beside him.

“Some time ago?” Eren asked.

The clerk checked the public tenant history before answering. “Several months.”

Marek glanced at Eren. That made two separate addresses tied to current-period records even though the businesses connected to them had already moved out months earlier.

They thanked the clerk and stepped back outside, where Silas added the clinic’s service limitations to the growing list of inconsistencies. One issue could still be explained away on its own, but several of them were starting to overlap.

Marek had seen enough for one visit. “We should go back.”

Nobody argued. Rafe saved the route information, Eren folded his notes, and even Rhovan seemed willing to leave without complaint.

They had already crossed another intersection when Silas moved a little closer to Marek. “The man in the gray jacket is back.”

Marek kept walking and resisted the urge to turn around. “Where?”

“Across the road behind us.”

Rafe used the reflection from a shop window to check without making it obvious. “He’s matching our direction.”

That was enough for Marek to understand much. “Don’t confront him. We keep moving and find someplace busier.”

Rhovan glanced at him, though for once he did not make a joke.

The five of them continued north through the next intersection.

And as Marek suspected, the man seemed to be really following them.

Marek tried changing streets once. Rafe guided them through a market road and then back toward one of the larger transit routes.

The man adjusted with them.

That settled it.

Marek kept his voice low. “We go somewhere public.”

“We are somewhere public,” Silas replied.

“I mean more public than where we are right now,” Marek clarified.

Rhovan glanced around at the crowded market. “Newton, if this becomes more public, we’ll have to rent a stage.”

Marek gave him a warning stare.

Rhovan raised both hands, looking entirely unapologetic.

Rafe soon found a route leading toward a transit stop near the edge of the redevelopment area. They started heading there without changing pace.

The man in the gray jacket disappeared again.

Marek did not trust that the man had suddenly lost track of them. “Do you see him?”

Silas checked one side of the street and replied, “No.”

Rafe shook his head.

Marek hated losing sight of someone more than seeing them.

They continued for another block before construction barriers forced pedestrians through a narrower temporary passage between two buildings.

Marek stopped.

The man in the gray jacket stood near the other end.

There were fewer people inside the passage. Most pedestrians had taken the longer route around the construction zone.

Marek stared at him. “So much for somewhere more public.”