The engineer swallowed, weighing his choices. “Leadership told us to port your codebase,” he admitted. “They said you walked away from everything, willingly.” Mara did not interrupt. She let him finish, because people told more when they did not feel attacked.
“Can you put that in an email?” Mara asked. “Just the facts. What happened, who directed it? I need it for my lawyer so this ends clean.” He hesitated, fear tightening his shoulders. Then he nodded once. “I’ll send something. But I must remain anonymous if it goes to trial,” he said. Mara said, “You have my word.”