Page 17 of For Mercy

As another half hour crawled by, Morgan paced the small room.Her mind drifted to her father, hiding out in that remote cabin.To Cordell, the puppet master pulling strings from the shadows.She shook her head, forcing herself to focus on the case at hand.One monster at a time.

"Dammit!"Carter slammed his hand on the desk, making Morgan jump."I'm sorry, Agent Cross.We've tried every decryption method, every filter we have.There's just...nothing."

Morgan's heart sank.She'd known it was a long shot, but part of her had still hoped."You're sure?"

Carter nodded grimly."Whoever sent this knew exactly what they were doing.The email's completely untraceable."

Morgan exhaled slowly, tamping down her frustration."Alright.Thank you for trying.Send me whatever you did manage to find, even if it seems insignificant."

As she turned to leave, one of the younger techs spoke up."Agent Cross?I know it's not much, but...the level of encryption, the way it was routed?This wasn't some amateur hacker.Whoever did this has serious skills."

Morgan paused in the doorway, considering."An engineer, maybe?"

The tech shrugged."Could be.Someone with a deep understanding of systems, for sure."

Morgan nodded, filing away the information.It wasn't much, but it was something.As she stepped into the hallway, her mind was already racing, formulating a new approach.If they couldn't chase the killer directly, they'd have to come at it from another angle.

She pulled out her phone, dialing Derik's number."Meet me in the briefing room," she said when he answered."We need to dig into Hawthorne's case history.Specifically, anyone with the skills to pull this off who might have a grudge."

As she hung up, Morgan felt a familiar determination settle over her.The killer might think he was a ghost, but even ghosts cast shadows.And she was going to find his, no matter what it took.

Morgan's jaw clenched as she stared at the array of monitors, each displaying a complex web of dead ends and false trails.The lead cybercrime specialist, a woman with dark-rimmed glasses and perpetually furrowed brows, turned to face her.

"I'm sorry, Agent Cross.This email is a black hole.We've tried every trick in the book and then some, but it's like chasing smoke."

Morgan leaned in, her eyes scanning the intricate diagrams on the screens."Walk me through it one more time."

The specialist sighed, pointing to various nodes on the display."The email was bounced through multiple proxy servers across six continents.Each hop was encrypted with a different algorithm.When we finally thought we had a lead, it turned out to be a dummy server in Antarctica, of all places."

"Antarctica?"Morgan's eyebrow raised."That's...creative."

"Creative and infuriating," the specialist agreed."Whoever set this up knew exactly what they were doing.They anticipated every standard tracing method and had a counter for each one."

Morgan felt a chill run down her spine, her investigator's instinct kicking into high gear.This wasn't just another case.This was something else entirely.

"So we're dealing with a pro," she muttered, more to herself than anyone else.

The tech nodded grimly."A pro with resources and time.This level of obfuscation takes planning.Lots of it."

Morgan straightened, crossing her arms tightly across her chest.The pieces were starting to form a picture in her mind, and it wasn't a pretty one.

"This isn't some heat-of-the-moment killer," she said, her voice low and intense."We're looking at someone who's been plotting this for a long time.Patient.Meticulous."

She turned to the team, her eyes hard with determination."I want every detail you can give me about the methods used.Even if it seems insignificant.This guy might be good, but nobody's perfect.There has to be a pattern, a signature, something."

As the techs nodded and turned back to their screens, Morgan felt a cold certainty settle in her chest.This case was going to push her to her limits, force her to think in ways she never had before.But she was ready for the challenge.

She watched as one of the senior techs shook his head, a look of defeat on his face.It confirmed what she'd already suspected – they weren't going to crack this through conventional means.

Morgan was already formulating new approaches.If they couldn't track the killer directly, they'd have to come at it from another angle.She needed to dig deeper into Hawthorne's past, find the connection that the killer had so painstakingly tried to erase.

Morgan's phone buzzed in her pocket, its vibration cutting through the tense atmosphere of the cybercrime unit.She fished it out, her heart sinking as she read the message from the forensics team.

"Damn it," she muttered, her fingers tightening around the device.

One of the techs looked up."Bad news, Agent Cross?"

Morgan nodded, her jaw clenched."Forensics came up empty.No DNA, no fingerprints, not even a stray hair."She exhaled sharply, frustration etching lines across her forehead."This guy isn't just good.He's a damn ghost."

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