Chloe's call came in at 1:14 PM.
"Someone just offered me five hundred dollars for footage of you," she said, without preamble. "Anonymous account. They knew your name. They knew I'd been filming in your parking lot."
Ryan pulled over. "Did you respond?"
"I blocked them. But Ryan — five hundred dollars is more money than most people in this city make in a decade. Someone wanted that footage very badly."
"Did the account have any details? Profile picture, bio, anything?"
"Nothing. Completely blank. But it was created today." A pause. "There's something else. I've been doing what I do — digging. I searched your address on public records. Your landlord filed a complaint with the city yesterday about a rental dispute. That complaint is public. Anyone could have found where you lived from that."
Ryan thought about Duke's warning. Chelsea had hired someone connected to Knox Development. Knox's permit history was full of red flags. And now an anonymous account was paying to surveil him through a content creator he'd met forty-eight hours ago.
"How'd they get to you specifically?" he asked.
"My stream," she said. "I went live in your parking lot yesterday. I didn't say your name, but I described the neighborhood. Someone watching found the address from there." She paused. "I'm sorry. I didn't know I was leading anyone to you."
"You didn't do anything wrong," Ryan said.
A brief silence. "Why would someone pay five hundred dollars to get information on a person living in a Garrison Street apartment?"
"Because they think I'm more than what I look like."
"Are you?"
Ryan looked at the mission counter on his phone. The estate. The banking network. $52,847 in a vault that nobody knew existed. Thirty percent of a two-trillion-dollar institution.
"Yes," he said.
Another pause, longer than the others.
"Okay," she said. "Then you should probably know — they sent a follow-up message before I blocked them. It said: 'Chelsea Anderson is offering double for anything you have.'"
Chelsea.
He'd known she'd come back. He'd just expected it to take longer.
"Send me everything the account sent you," Ryan said. "Screenshots, timestamps, everything." He paused. "And Chloe — don't film my neighborhood again. Not until I tell you it's safe."
"Understood," she said. "But, Ryan — be careful. Whoever this is, they moved fast. You've been visible for less than seventy-two hours."
She hung up.
Ryan sat in the parked car and thought about the timeline. Chelsea had started making calls within twenty minutes of leaving the hospital. She had hired someone connected to Knox Development within hours. Now that same network had reached Chloe through a public live stream.
*She doesn't know what she's dealing with*, he thought. *But she's not stupid. She'll keep pulling until she finds something.*
He called Duke Morrison.
"The connection between Chelsea and Knox," Ryan said. "How close is it?"
"Close enough that she's been in his office twice this week," Duke said. "Whatever she told him, he's listening."
"Does Knox know about me yet?"
"Not specifics. He knows someone bought his flagship listing. He knows the buyer paid cash, same-day transfer. He doesn't have a name." A pause. "He will by end of week."
Ryan looked at his mission counter.
**[SYSTEM: Knox Development Group — flagged as PRIMARY ACQUISITION TARGET.]**
*Harrison Knox has commissioned external research on the Cloud and River Estate buyer. Estimated timeline to identification: 4–5 days.*
*Recommendation: Move first.*
Four days.
He thought about Chelsea's move, Knox's resources, the anonymous account, the footage Chloe hadn't posted.
He thought about how fast a fifty-cent man could become a problem for people who weren't paying attention.
He started the car.
**[SYSTEM: Banking Network — ACTIVE. Property Network — ACTIVE. Phase 2 initiating.]**
*New Mission: Establish corporate entity. Knox has four days before he knows your name. You need a structure before he does.*
> **[Hook]** *That evening, a black car sat outside Cloud and River Estate for forty minutes before driving away. Marcus Shaw called Ryan from across the street: "You've got someone watching the property. Professional — not police. Whoever Chelsea hired, they've found the estate." Ryan looked at the lights of his new home. Four days. The clock was running, and Chelsea Anderson was already one step ahead. It was time to start moving faster.*