Page 113 of A Wolfe in the Woods

Another stretch of silence and then he exhaled again. For the first time I truly saw how tired he was. Not just from losing his job, but from carrying something dark that was deeply hidden.

“Please, Bernie,” I said softly.

“When Eldritch was still in charge,” he began, voice soft, “Skoll felt normal. Not perfect—gods, no—no company ever is, but it was mostly moral. When Erik took over and began his purge…everything shifted. More than you know. Internal things. The changes didn’t start on the office floor.”

He stared down at his hands, as if the ink of old signatures still stained them. “I signed off on things I barely understood. Approvals. Transfers. Legal language buried deep in audits.” His mouth tightened. “I was supposed to oversee compliance. Instead, I saw…far more.”

The air between us sharpened.

“Polaris Equity?” I blurted, instinct moving faster than sense. “Do you know that name?”

Bernie’s expression went cold, knowing. He barely nodded.

“Polaris Equity,” he said slowly, “is one. Skoll owns dozens of companies—shells, proxies, conservation trusts, LLCs that barely exist on paper. They’ve been buying land for years…quietly but aggressively. Parcels no one would notice on their own. But together?” He looked up at me, eyes shadowed. “They form a path. And Foley Wolfe’s land sits at the heart of it. Critical. Without it, the city can’t move forward on a redevelopment initiative no one is supposed to know exists.”

Realization hit me, keeping in time with my thundering heartbeat.

“You were going to whistleblow…”

Bernie nodded, eyes lowered in shame. “But Erik got to me first.”

His voice shook, then he stared at his hands like they were the crime.

“I had the files open—screens pulled up, downloads in progress. I suddenly felt time was running out. Every instinct told merun. But I had nowhere to take the truth. No one I trusted enough to give it to, except you. But I didn’t want to involve you. So, I did the only thing I could.”

He swallowed, hard.

“I buried it. Erik and Fang walked in thirty seconds later.”

My heart thudded. “Buried it? Where?”

“Inside the Skoll servers…where only someone who knows where to look could ever find them.” His gentle hand hovered slightly over mine, trembling. “Blanche, listen to me…if Erik ties you to this, he won’t just break your career, he’ll break who you are. Everything is riding on this for him.”

My breath shook. “He already made Jonathan believe I’d betrayed him. I have to get the truth or else…”

The rest caught in my throat. Bernie waited, gentle, patient, the way he always did. “Then this matters for more than just land,” he said.

My silence was answer enough.

Bernie rose slowly, like a man who’d stood up to ghosts before and was facing another. He disappeared into a drawer and rummaged through it, returning with a folded slip of paper. I recognized the look on his face…this was the last thing he’d held on to when he’d already lost everything.

He sat, placed it between us, but didn’t push it forward until he’d spoken, explaining how systems at Skoll layered over one another, where clearance hid beneath clearance, how digital walls were only minor inconveniences meant to deter. His access might open a crack, or it might already be dead. He wasn’t sure. Either way, it was all he had left to offer.

When he finally pressed it into my hand, his fingers lingered, a silent plea:Be careful.

And I realized there was nothing else I needed.

If I don’t do this, then Jonathan will have been right about me.

And I refuse to let Graymore and Erik Skoll define who I am.

The next afternoon, I went into the office, even though it was a Saturday. I often pulled late nights, and wasn’t a stranger to weekends at my desk, so it wouldn’t have sparked any suspicion. Just to cover my tracks, I even went in a little earlier, even though I’d need to wait until the evening when I was certain most of the building would be cleared out.

There was a backlog of work waiting for me after all the time I had missed. Nothing critical that couldn’t wait, but enough to keep me tethered to my desk until dusk.

By the time I stood up from my desk, my body stiff, there was no one left on my floor. Adrienne from Compliance had been the last to leave. Down the hall, I heard the distant squeak of the custodian’s cart, his earbuds in, whistling softly as he worked.

I left my desk. My breathing was tight and shallow. I went deep into the building, away from the familiar routes, toward places I had no business being in. Every so often, I looked over my shoulder and tried to avoid cameras where I knew they’d be.