"Nathaniel Vance," bulong ko habang nakatitig sa pangalan na lumabas sa decrypted server logs. It was the same name on the receipt Dante found. "He’s a junior developer sa HQ. No wonder the system didn’t flag him; he has legitimate access to the staging environment."
Dante grabbed his jacket from the back of the sofa. "Then we're wasting time here. If he knows we're close, he'll scrub the trail. We need to find him before he vanishes into the pixels."
"Wait," sabi ko, tumayo rin ako. "We can’t just go there. It’s nearly 3:00 AM, Dante. And we’re supposed to stay in the safehouse until the 30 days are up."
"Rules are just walls you build to keep yourself from actually solving the problem, Elena," he said, walking towards the door. Huminto siya at lumingon sa akin, a challenge in his eyes. "Are you coming, or are you going to stay here and wait for the system to tell you what to do?"
I bit my lip. The sting of his arrogance was there, but he was right. My protocols were failing. I grabbed my blazer and followed him out into the cool Tagaytay air. The silence of the night was a stark contrast to the heavy atmosphere inside the safehouse.
Sumakay kami sa lumang sasakyan ni Dante. It smelled like his scent—ulan at lumang libro. As he started the engine, I felt a sudden surge of adrenaline. This was unfiltered work. No firewalls, no polished pixels. Just us.
"Bakit mo ito ginagawa, Dante?" tanong ko habang bumababa kami sa bundok. "You could have stayed a high-end investigator. Why choose the messy path?"
He didn't look away from the road. "Because the 'dirt' is where the truth is, Elena. Masyadong malinis ang mundo mo. Everything is edited. I prefer the version of life that hasn't been through a filter yet."
He glanced at me for a split second. "Like you. Right now, without your monitors and your spreadsheets, you look... real."
The tension in the car shifted. It wasn't about the case anymore. It was about the way the streetlights flickered across his face and the rhythm of my heart that I couldn't seem to automate.
"We have a job to do," I said, looking out the window to hide the heat rising in my cheeks.
"Day seven, Elena," Dante whispered, a smirk playing on his lips. "And you're already breaking your own rules."
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