The tension was unbearable.
Emma stood in front of the judge's desk, hands clenched. "I can't do this anymore."
The judge frowned. "Why?"
"It's not the case," she said, avoiding eye contact. "It's Amara. I feel like I'm… stepping on something sacred. Every time I breathe, she looks at me like I'm the enemy. I can't work beside Santiago like this."
The judge sighed. "You two are the best we have. But I won't force it. Let me speak to Santiago."
Downstairs, Santiago scanned a USB stick Lara had recovered from a corrupted device. The file had been hidden beneath layers of fake code.
"What is it?" Emma asked, despite everything.
Santiago opened the decrypted file. It was a photo—an image of the two murdered young men, alive, standing beside a tall man with a scar down his neck.
"That's Ramírez," Santiago muttered. "He knew them. He worked with them."
Then a note appeared beneath the photo:
"Operation 27: Disposal in progress."
Emma gasped. "It wasn't random. It was a cleanup."
Santiago stood up. "We have proof now. Real proof."
Later that night, Amara overheard Emma talking to the judge on the phone again.
"I'll finish the mission," she said. "But once it's over… I'm gone."
Amara walked away without saying a word—but her heart was pounding.
Meanwhile, in Lara's circle, someone accessed restricted files without permission. She traced the digital breach.
"It came from within," she whispered to herself.