Page 139 of The Thief
"Who?"
"Someone who understands that loyalty is a luxury this family can't afford anymore. Someone who's seen the writing on the wall."
He's talking about the mole. Taunting us with knowledge we can't access.
"Does that someone know you're completely insane?" I ask.
"Insane?" His voice goes dangerously quiet. "I'm the sanest man in this war. I'm the only one who understands what's really at stake."
"Which is?"
"Everything. Power, territory, the future itself. Your grandfather's empire is crumbling, and I'm going to be there to pick up the pieces."
"Over my dead body," Henry says.
"That's the plan."
The line goes dead, leaving us staring at each other in heavy silence.
"Well," Denis says finally. "That was illuminating."
"He's completely unhinged," Stephen observes.
"And he's got someone inside our organization feeding him information," Maverick adds.
"But something he said..." Henry's thinking, processing. "About knowing our safe houses, our security arrangements. The way he phrased it."
"What about it?"
"He used present tense. 'I know things.' Not 'I've learned things' or 'I've been told things.' Like he has current, ongoing access to our operations."
Freddie straightens. "Real-time intelligence."
"Which means our mole isn't just passing along old information. He's actively monitoring our current activities."
The implications are chilling. Whoever's betraying us isn't just selling historical data, they're providing live updates on our movements, our plans, our security measures.
The door opens, admitting Makenna. She looks grim, carrying a folder that probably contains more bad news.
"Please tell me you've got something useful," Denis says.
"Depends on how you define useful." Makenna sets the folder on Henry's desk. "I've been researching our friend Trace. Medical records, psychological evaluations, hospital admissions."
"And?"
"He's been sectioned three times in the past five years. Involuntary psychiatric holds, all stemming from episodes of extreme paranoia and violent behavior."
"Sectioned for what?"
"First time was before he and Ava met. By the looks of things, it coincided with a woman his father was seeing dying. He became unhinged. After that, he was sectioned after his father's death. Complete breakdown, threats of suicide and homicide."
"And the third?"
"Right around the time he started this war with us. Ava's death."
Henry opens the folder and scans the documents inside. "Diagnosis?"
"Paranoid personality disorder with psychotic features. The kind of mental illness that makes someone extremely dangerous when triggered."
