Reeves picks up on the second ring. You walk him through the anomalous traffic, the double signatures, the harbour connection. He’s quiet longer than he should be. “Send it through secure channels,” he says. You do.

An hour later a second call: the nodes have been reviewed and cleared by internal security. When you pull up the map again the anomalous signatures are gone. Wiped clean. You stare at the empty map and count back the seconds between your call and his follow-up. Forty-two minutes to audit and erase a three-day traffic anomaly. Efficient.