“Most of them.”
Matteo shot him a look.
Leo shrugged.
“She already knows there’s a leak.”
“No,” Sophie said.
“I know there may be one.”
She arranged the sheets by date.
“You’re assuming the bad outcome proves the information was false.
That isn’t necessarily true.
The stronger pattern is that the information is almost right.”
Matteo watched her hands.
Sophie continued.
“A warehouse gets hit shortly after equipment moves.
A vehicle is intercepted after changing routes.
A meeting location becomes unsafe after it is confirmed.
And tonight, you were given the correct face and the correct family name, but the wrong twin.”
She looked up.
“That’s not random failure.
Someone keeps giving you information accurate enough to earn trust and inaccurate enough to hurt you.”
Leo went very still.
Matteo’s eyes lowered to the papers.
Sophie knew that stillness too.
It was what happened in a conference room when everyone realized the model had not predicted the disaster.
The model was the disaster.
Matteo closed the folder.
“How would you test it?”
Sophie’s stomach tightened.
She understood what he was asking.
Not whether her theory sounded clever.
Whether she was willing to step inside it.
“Give the source something false,” she said.
Leo nodded slowly.
Matteo remained silent.
“Something specific,” Sophie continued.
“Something only that channel receives.
Then watch where the consequence appears.”
“That would tell me if information is leaking.”
“No.
You already know information is leaking somewhere.”
Sophie tapped the closed folder.
“It tells you whether the person who sent you after me is connected to the leak.”
Matteo stared at her for a long moment.
“You do this for an insurance company?”
“I measure how expensive bad assumptions become.”
Leo snorted.
Matteo finally picked up the Zippo again.
Click.
“You’re very calm for someone who was kidnapped an hour ago.”
“I’m going to be extremely upset later.”
Click.
“Later?”
“When I’m somewhere with locks I control.”
That time, Matteo almost smiled.
Almost.
Sophie pointed toward her phone.
“But none of this happens unless Chloe stays alive.”
