Page 141 of Crossfire

“I need to hear that you’re willing to put that on the line.”

I could understand his need for explicit confirmation that I was willing to throw my career away in exchange for whatever he found.

Gladly. “I am.”

Ivy’s delicate hand slipped into mine, her warm touch instantly cooling my rage from a boil to a simmer, dissipating some of my panic.

Her presence alone was an ointment to my burned soul, and with a gentle nod of her head, she gave me the patience I needed to listen to what Barry had to say.

“First”—Barry pulled out a sheet of paper—“in analyzing the ‘communications’ between Ivy and Vosch, I had my guy analyze the digital footprint for signs of editing or inconsistencies. The data formatting suggests tampering, and”—Barry pulled out a time sheet from her hospital—“some of these alleged communications occurred at exact times when she was in theemergency room, treating patients. Now, I’ll admit this piece is a little thinner in terms of proof; one could argue she might have gone into a different room to have these communications, but when you put it together with the second thing we found, it takes shape.”

He laid down another sheet of paper.

“We found anomalies in the creation dates that do not align with the reported dates of the meetings she was supposedly a part of. For example, this photograph here was supposedly taken twelve days ago. But the metadata behind the photograph shows the image of Ivy is actually eight months old. Similar discrepancies were found in other photographs.”

Hope took flight in my ribs, Ivy’s hand squeezing mine.

“Now,” Barry continued, “that alone is bad enough, but he also found anomalies in the shadows and lighting that do not match the time of day or geographical location indicated. Finally, elements in the background conflict with known facts. For example, this building way back here”—Barry pointed to a building on the far-left side of the picture—“has been under construction for the last month. Yet, in this picture, the construction hasn’t started yet.”

“How would anyone not notice that?” I balked.

“It’s unlikely anyone would notice it unless they were specifically looking for these anomalies. Now, as for the financial records that show Ivy receiving payments from Vosch’s organization…”

Barry retrieved another piece of paper and set it on the table.

“There are inconsistencies in the dates of these transactions. If you track the source of these funds, it traces back to an entity solely created for the purpose of moving money. However”—Barry pointed at the ledger—“according to this, Ivy received payment as far back as 168 days ago. Now…”

Barry pulled out another piece of paper.

“If anyone had attempted to match this transaction against that entity, they would have found a match, so it looks legit. Would even past a first-level audit. But if they had dug deeper, they would have discovered that this entity did not exist 168 days ago when the first transaction appeared. It wasn’t created until four weeks ago.”

Holy shit.

Barry laid out the evidence across his desk, one piece of paper at a time. On the top row, the documents that had been analyzed, and on the bottom, the paper that disproved all of it.

“All of it is fabricated,” I deduced.

“Well, we haven’t gotten throughallthe files yet, but the ones we have gotten through are fabricated.”

Unbelievable. I knew this in my gut. All I should feel was euphoria, but something else rolled through me like an unstoppable thunderstorm.

Absolute, blinding rage.

“How did you figure all of this out so quickly?” I challenged.

He’d only hadhours. I was hoping foronesmoking gun that I could use to get the CIA to pause Ivy’s elimination order while we worked on the rest, but multiple smoking guns?

How could the CIA have been this reckless? If it only took Barry hours to prove her innocence, how much effort did they put into authenticating Ivy’s guilt in the first place?

“I have a highly specialized team of ex-CIA experts in digital forensics, data analysis, and investigations,” Barry explained. “They’re trained to quickly identify red flags and inconsistencies in evidence, using advanced software and AI-powered tools. We prioritized the most critical pieces that could prove the target’s innocence.”

Jesus.

“We didn’t have time to track the discrepancies further, to see if we can uncover who or when someone put this together, but we at least had time to show these parts were fabricated.”

“Why didn’t the CIA catch these issues?” I snarled. “Don’t they thoroughly vet evidencebeforeordering an assassination?”

Barry rubbed his jaw, clearly troubled. “Honestly, it doesn’t sit well with me either. If multiple pieces of evidence corroborated each other, they might not have dug deep enough. But it’s also possible this came from someone inside the CIA who knew how to push it through without raising flags.”

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