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"WHAT DO YOU MEAN GONE?"

Elijah looks close to tears as he looks up at Axel.

"It- It isn't there anymore," he says, his lower lip trembling, "I don't know how it happened-"

"How could you not know?!" Corban yells suddenly, turning around from where he was glaring at the wall- his burning glower now on the trembling man, "I trusted you with this. I assigned this to you privately, because I thought you were capable-"

"Privately," Axel scoffs, turning to look at Corban with a tight jaw, "Yeah, privately- how'd that go for you, Boss?"

"Do not start," Corban warns, lifting a hand, "this whole investigation is because you were the target-"

"You see, it's funny," Axel takes a step towards him with a sarcastic laugh, "you say this is about me, but you won't fucking tell me a thing. In fact, you specifically told people to keep this from me-"

"Because you're distracted," Corban jeers, his face twisted into a sneer, "We're trying to find a traitor in this unit, and you're running around like a lovesick puppy-"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Axel hisses back, taking another step closer, "Huh? You're mad that I'll tell her about the case developments? And what- you're mad that she'll help- like she's been doing ever since she got here?"

"If there's someone I'm mad at, it's not her," Corban snaps, shoving Axel back when he steps too close, "Because she seems to know where to draw a line between using her head and getting distracted, but someone else doesn't-"

"Oh, you fucking-"

"Watch it, Axel," he says coldly, when Axel moves to take another step forward, his hands balling up into fists, "I'm still your boss and I'm still in charge of this investigation-"

"Investigation my ass-"

"Enough!"

Both men fall silent- still right in front of each other, with their glares intact.

"Stop it," Bea says again, sternly, "There's a problem here, and fighting with each other will not solve it. If you need to take a breather, get the fuck out, calm down, and then step back into the room."

A few tense seconds pass, while neither of them say anything to the other until, they step away from each other- averting their angry gazes.

"Thank you," Bea says pointedly, though the irritation in her expression doesn't fall either as she turns to the trembling man, "Now, Elijah, why don't you be a darl' and calmly tell us what's wrong."

Elijah swallows nervously, glancing at all of them before glancing back at his fingers.

"I went out for lunch," he begins shakily, "And- I- no one ever comes into my room- so I thought things would be okay- because it's generally pretty empty on my floor in the residential quarters, though Marli sometimes comes up-"

"You went out for lunch," Axel interrupts pointedly before he can go off on a tangent, "What happened after that?"

"I- well, I came back," Elijah bites his lip, fiddling with his fingers, "And I logged into my system to continue working on what Boss had-had told me to do- but it was gone. All of it was gone- all progress, data, everything related to this case, and I don't-"

His voice cracks before he can finish the sentence, and he turns his face downward.

"He's right," Gale mutters dejectedly from the corner of the room, his eyes on the screens of the two computers in front of him, as his fingers continue to jab random keys.

Few more seconds and he gives up, leaning back and taking off his glasses.

"Gone," he mutters, shaking his head, as he runs a hand through his hair, "Without a trace. I can't see or trace their footprints on here either, it's been wiped clean."

"Are you sure?" Axel can't help but ask, his eyebrows furrowing in distress, as he takes a step forward.

"A hundred percent," Gale mutters, before his eyes take on an accusatory gleam, "Almost as if they were never there in the first place."

"Gale, stop it," Corban mutters tiredly, as Gale glares defiantly at the other teary-eyed computer analyst in the room, "I saw the daily progress of him tracking the signal-"

"Tracking what signal?" Gale demands, "And how come you didn't ask me about it? I'm the one on the team, aren't I? How come you never told me about it?"

"Because he found the signal, you didn't," Corban says blankly, "and he found something odd with it, you didn't. I didn't want more prying eyes and minds when one person could've solved it just fine."

"You don't think it's suspicious?" Gale asks again, incredulity filling his expression, "You seriously see nothing wrong with one man finding a signal that nearly got us killed- who then claiming that he knows something more about it?"

Elijah on the other hand seemed to have not heard a single word anyone around him said- as he continues to sadly stare at his hands.

"So close," he mumbles softly, "I was so close to figuring out where it was from, and finally doing something right for the unit. I swear Boss, I was moments away from finding out who it was. I'm sorry."

Though Corban's eyes were hard, they soften fractionally for a moment. Axel was almost certain he was going to offer awkward words of comfort, but what he says next only makes more sense.

"I think the... traitor... figured out that you were close," he mutters gruffly, "This... secondary investigation... was kept a secret in the hopes that people, and incidentally the traitor wouldn't find out, but clearly, we weren't very successful in keeping it low-profile."

He glances at Axel for a moment, while speaking the last sentences- and Axel only meets his gaze evenly, nodding stiffly in response.

"Basically," he says, glancing at him once more, before looking at Bea and Gale as well, "The signal leading to the Blackwood's warehouse was fake."

Gale's eyes widen. "What ?"

"Yeah," Corban nods, "Elijah did more digging on the signal, but when he discovered it was fake, it was too late."

"What do you mean, fake?" Bea questions curiously, scrunching her face.

"It means, that someone in our unit, put it there, for us to find," Corban explains sullenly, "There was never a signal that connected Blackwood and our unit, so what Elijah found- was never a lead."

"Right," Bea murmurs, eyes flickering to the said person.

The same suspicion that was etched on Gale's expression, creeps into hers as she stares at him.

"Elijah," she says after a few moments, with a small frown, "How come you found the signal, but Gale didn't?"

Gale throws his hands up in exasperation. "That's the exact question I've been asking this whole time-"

"Gale, shut up for a moment," Bea mutters, taking a step closer to Elijah who looks up at her with teary eyes.

"Elijah," she says as kindly as she can, though there's an underlying warning in her tone, "if there's something you're hiding, things aren't going to go well for you. Axel was shot, you know?"

"He was what?" his eyes widen, as he turns to Axel, "Blackwood's men shot you?"

Axel frowns. "Uh, I-"

Elijah's expression instantly melts into one of guilt. "Oh no, sir- I am so sorry- the moment I thought something was fishy- I should've never told you about the signal without proper investigation, I didn't consider that you could get shot by his men-"

"No, no," Axel frowns, "I got shot before that. That's- That's what this investigation was about-"

"Wait," Elijah's expression turns puzzled, "I thought this investigation was because you were looking for someone you believed was a traitor?"

"A traitor who shot Axel before we began this investigation," Gale no longer looks suspicious either, but just confused, "You didn't know that?"

"I didn't," Elijah says, shaking his head as he turns to Gale, "You were the one who briefed me about this investigation- you never mentioned it?"

"Because I thought you knew?" Gale turns to Corban, baffled, "You didn't tell him?"

Corban rolls his eyes. "You've been cribbing about how this investigation was supposed to be a secret. He only knows what you told him about it- that there's a traitor in the unit."

"Oh," Gale deflates, throwing the other man a sheepish yet apologetic glance, "My bad, sorry Elijah."

Elijah only shrugs as he turns back to Axel, his eyes curious- but he doesn't question anything.

"This sucks," Bea mutters, after a few moments of tense contemplative silence.

"Yeah," Axel offers quietly, his eyes flickering to Stella for a moment.

Surprisingly, she hadn't said a word the whole time.

She was simply staring at the wooden surface of the table, her entire expression carefully blank, but the small dip in one of her eyebrows betrayed the cogs turning in her brain.

One part of her brain was only thinking about what she had considered for the first time, a few minutes ago.

She had considered staying on Earth for longer. For Axel.

No terms, no conditions, no loopholes.

Simply going through with her promise of not leaving, through her companionship and time. I won't leave, I promise.

Maybe she could stop harnessing time? Allow herself to age with him?

Stay with him for longer?

While a part of her mind refused to stop swarming with thoughts of him- thoughts that chanted his name on repeat- Axel, Axel, Axel- thoughts of how she could stay here on earth, be happy with him- the other part of her brain, was almost stumped.

They were dealing with a traitor who was incredibly smart. Or incredibly lucky. Or even both.

Every time they came close to figuring it out, the traitor managed to slip out of their clutches like smoke.

Smoke was something that looked so very close to the clutches of your fingers, but when you reached for it-

It vanished into the air, right in front of your eyes. Disappeared into plain sight. 

The traitor seemed like a human of smoke. 

Someone hidden in plain sight.

The moment the thought crosses her brain, her eyes fall on something in the corner of the room.

Something that looked perfectly innocent, unsuspicious, and inconspicuous to the eye- but something that seemed to be in every single room- both in the residential quarters and in the main rooms of the HQ.

A trolley.

Specifically, the trolley used by the staff at HQ.

She straightens in her seat, eyes narrowed at it.

Was it a coincidence that nearly every room had one of these?

And if it wasn't a coincidence- how likely was it, that this was the subtlest way of hiding bugs in plain sight?

'How is this guy everywhere?'

Stella exhales, her heart thudding in her chest as her eyes flicker away from it for a moment- before they go back to it.

It was something she had heard Axel mutter under his breath when he had caught sight of a familiar someone. As quickly as he had said it, he had dismissed the suspicion- as had she.

But now, thinking about it- there were so many little dots and places that her mind was rapidly connecting- things that seemed like they weren't suspicious, but had been in front of her the whole time.

The knives. When they had gone back to the spot to scout out clues, someone had hurled knives at them. While Stella had been more concerned about dislodging them from their spots and hurling it back- they had felt odd in her hands.

For someone trained in weaponry of daggers, why would it feel odd to hold a certain kind of knife?

It could mean only one thing. Those knives weren't meant to be used for weaponry.

They were kitchen knives, the kind that was easily accessible to anyone. More easily accessible, for the staff. How had she never realized it before?

And Axel- Tallulah had said there was nothing wrong with him the day he got shot. Nothing in his blood affecting his brain- no drugs, no alcohol- then why had he been that disoriented?

Wasn't it odd that a man trained for situations like these, didn't detect a thing out of the ordinary?

But again, he had said he was tending to Axel's wounds. He had been in her room, the first day she had arrived- he had always been strangely nervous and jittery around everyone.

And he could've easily messed with Axel's medical records to seem like there was nothing out of the ordinary.

He had access to nearly every room in the HQ- all under the pretense of being a worker, so he could easily manage to get around- doing things undetected.

'How is this guy everywhere?'

There didn't seem like there was a way for a single man to pull something like this off. However, with an inconspicuous network spread across their entire unit- hiding in plain sight the whole time- with minimum assistance- it wouldn't be all that difficult, would it?

Stella lets out a shaky breath of disbelief as she leans back in her seat.

Winston.

Oh, dear dear, Stars.

It had been in front of her this whole time.

She had just been too blind, oblivious, and dismissive to see it.

"-rything okay, Stella?"

Her focus snaps back into the present, as she looks up to find all eyes on her.

"What?" she blinks for a moment, trying not to let the whole realization shake her too much.

"I said," Axel gives her a concerned once-over, "Is everything okay?"

She inhales shakily, straightening in her seat once more, as she looks back down at the dark brown surface of the wooden table.

"I think," she says softly, "I know who the traitor is."

Important note-

1) in the previous chapter I referred to Tallulah (a forensic analyst who made a brief appearance) with the pronouns they/them. yes, that was intentional- please don't message/comment rude things about it, because I will only delete it ^__^

2) there is another character in Arc-en-ciel who goes by the name Winston. To clarify- they're not the same people- so, I'm very sorry 'bout that!

Ik I said that I'm going to be quiet in the author's notes for a bit- but I just had to get this out of the way! Thank you for reading, don't forget to vote/comment!

that is all for today, be well xx

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