Chapter 194: Marcus Identifies a Pattern

Marcus Shaw did not believe in coincidence.

He believed in repetition, in data that refused to stay buried, in the quiet alignment of details that most people dismissed because they arrived years apart and dressed differently each time.

It was nearly two in the morning when the pattern surfaced.

The Crosswell security floor was silent, lights dimmed to a functional glow. Screens displayed logistics routes, port feeds, and dormant threat models. Marcus sat alone at the long workstation, sleeves rolled up, jacket abandoned over the back of his chair. He had been reviewing a routine surveillance escalation report tied to Whitmore assets when one name appeared where it did not belong.

Not once.

Twice.