Mercer’s Full Confession

Mercer shuts the office door and stops pretending this is routine. Over the last six months, high-value timber and items stripped from old CCC-era sites have moved through the county on routes that never appear in reports. Your brother found proof linking Hollow Pine to the transfers. Mercer says she tried to push it up the chain and got warned off by people who knew details they should not have known. She cannot tell whether the leak is one person or half the district. On her desk sits a folder she never logged, packed with incident photos and vehicle notes. She slides it toward you without taking her eyes off the window.