Page 7 of Operation: Defiance

That’s standard. Exactly the kind of thing she should be doing.

“And?”

She hesitates again. “The last file in the dataset was…different. Every employee ID in it had an injury code, then a role change, but the medical reviews were incomplete. They all ended with some obscure reference and a note about Occupational Health requesting reassignment. That’s strange, right?”

My pulse ticks up sharply. She’s still a junior analyst. She shouldn’t have access to medical reviews. You need senior-level clearance for that. “Maybe,” I say lightly. “But it’s not something you need to worry about. I’m sure that last file was just glitchy. It happens sometimes.”

She frowns. “But⁠—”

“Send it to me. I’ll take a look. If it’s a bug the programmers want to see, I’ll loop you in.”

She pauses, then nods.

When she leaves, I sit very still and let my thoughts settle.

Tessa isn’t cleared for Medical. There are only two analysts in the building who are. I’m one, and my supervisor, Claire, is the other. Whatever file Tessa found shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

The whoosh of a new email breaks the silence. I open the file and stare at the screen for several seconds. The obscure reference before the update about Occupational Health? It’s one I recognize.

RJ-3.

I reopen the private note I started on Friday and strip everything related to RJ-3 down to dates, time stamps, and op codes. After another hour, I’ve found two more field agents whose personnel files end abruptly.

I don’t know what any of it means yet. So I save the note off the network and turn back to my queue. I can’t make sense of the pattern yet, and without context, conclusions are meaningless.

Ellen might have seen this type of thing before. She spent nearly twenty-five years at GSD before she retired. Half of it in the field, the rest in Systems. I’ll call her tomorrow for a sanity check.

The building hums around me, a constant vibration of air and electricity that’s peaceful and almost reassuring, as I lock my screen and head for the break room to get another cup of coffee.