"Anonymous." Delia said the word like it had a bad taste. "The office doesn't disclose during the initial inquiry stage."
Reagan looked at her for a moment.
"Do you still have the original document?" she asked.
"Yes."
"Browser history? Search terms? Sources you looked up?"
Delia stared at her. "You're asking the right questions very fast."
"Do you have them?"
"Everything's in my Google Drive. Dated. I write in drafts. There are probably eight versions, with timestamps going back three days before the paper was due."
Reagan nodded slowly.
"Don't delete anything," she said. "Don't move anything. Don't talk to the integrity office without keeping a written record of every conversation."
"Reagan." Delia's voice was quiet. "Is this about me? Or is this because of you?"
Reagan didn't look away.
"I think," she said carefully, "that someone figured out you're the person closest to me. And that you have a scholarship with conditions."
Delia sat with that for a moment.
"They're trying to get to you through me," she said.
"That's what it looks like."
Delia was quiet. Then: "That is a spectacularly rotten thing to do."
"Yes."
"He doesn't even know me."
"No," Reagan agreed. "He doesn't."
Delia looked down at her hands. Then she looked up.
"Okay," she said. "What do we do?"
"You do exactly what I said. Preserve everything. Answer formally and in writing. And give me a day."
"A day for what?"
Reagan picked her book back up. "To think," she said.
* * *
She trained that evening for two hours instead of one.
Not out of anxiety. That wasn't how it worked for her. Physical training was where she went to think clearly. The body occupied, the mind free.
Ray Dunbar had explained it to her once, in terms she'd never forgotten. The body knows how to handle stress. Give it something concrete to do, and the mind stops spinning and starts working.
She worked combinations on the heavy bag. Slow first, then faster. She ran footwork drills until the patterns were automatic. She stretched until the tension in her back released.
And she thought.
The academic complaint against Delia was a calculated escalation. It wasn't random.
It required someone who knew Delia had a scholarship with academic conditions. Who knew how to file an anonymous complaint through official channels. And who understood that the investigation alone, regardless of outcome, would cost Delia time, stress, and standing.
It was designed to send a message to Reagan without touching Reagan directly.
Back off, or the people around you pay.
The problem for Shane was that Reagan recognized the move. She'd seen it before, in a different context.
In competition, there was a version of this. A fighter who couldn't beat you directly would try to disrupt your preparation. Get in your head. Make you fight distracted.
The counter wasn't to fight harder. The counter was to stay in your own game. Control what you could control. Don't let someone else's play change your rhythm.
She kept training.