Maya held up a hand before the exchange could escalate. "If you have records that support those statements, provide them through a separate interview. We won't establish responsibility by letting people accuse one another in front of a command terminal."
Rebecca looked at her for a long moment. Then she said, "I have emails. Meeting instructions. Messages telling me to delay outside technical reviews."
"Don't forward or edit them," Maya replied. "Show the investigator where they are. Your devices and the relevant accounts will be preserved through the proper process."
Rebecca agreed. As an agent escorted her toward another room, she turned once more to Mercer. "You told me not to let anyone inspect the basement until Calvin finished cleaning up the system."
"That isn't what happened," Mercer said.
"Then your messages should help you prove it."
The room fell silent after she left. Mercer stared at the doorway, then back at the screen. Maya had seen similar moments in earlier investigations: a relationship built on mutual confidence suddenly became a struggle over who would be named in a document. She made a point of looking away rather than treating the spectacle as a victory. The work was not to enjoy the collapse of an alliance. It was to determine whether any allegation could be established independently.
A few minutes later a federal agent returned with a preliminary collection summary. Rebecca had identified messages directing staff to postpone outside technical reviews and to leave Sloan Integrated Systems' remote privileges active until project closeout. Some had been sent from a shared command account; others carried authentication linked to Mercer's individual credentials. Maya asked for each message to be preserved with its available context, including earlier replies and subsequent actions. A fragment of an email could mislead as easily as a fragment of video. She would not build a case from convenient excerpts.
On Lena's screen the county route refreshed. Nathan's vehicle had emerged from the weak-signal area and continued south. Maya picked up the secure telephone. "Transport One, confirm status."
"We're good," the driver replied. "Still on State Eight. No electronic changes accepted. Mr. Cole is fine."
Nathan's voice came through in the background. "I'm still here, Agent Williams."
Maya felt a small release of tension in her shoulders. "Continue to the federal location. Voice guidance until arrival."
"Understood."
With the transport safe and the relevant activity independently preserved, Maya authorized the next containment step. Sloan Integrated Systems' administrative certificates were disabled under controlled supervision, with dispatch and other critical services maintained separately. Owen watched the status changes and confirmed that the outbound data transfers from the hidden environment stopped. Lena verified that ordinary calls and evidence reception continued functioning. The federal forensic copy of the hidden system remained protected, and investigators retained the records of the unauthorized routing attempts, the earlier exports, and the administrative changes.
"All contractor administrative access revoked from the environment under review," Owen reported. "Operational communications stable. The preserved copy is intact."
"Keep the source material under documented custody," Maya said. "Anything we analyze from here should be a working copy. And every time an examiner reaches a conclusion, I want the underlying record identified."