Chapter 1 — Rain Over Warsaw
Warsaw welcomed them with rain.
It wasn’t a violent storm, but rather a calm, persistent drizzle that turned the streets into wet mirrors. Car headlights reflected in puddles while pedestrians hurried along beneath their umbrellas.
Anna stood by the window of their small apartment in Mokotów, watching the street.
Everything was new.
A new city.
A new apartment.
A new life.
Behind her, Michał set the last box down on the floor and stretched wearily.
“That’s everything,” he said with a faint smile. “Our whole life in ten boxes.”
Anna turned around.
She smiled too, though there was something more than simple happiness in her eyes. Perhaps a trace of unease.
“The important thing is that we’re together,” she said.
Michał walked over and wrapped his arms around her from behind. His hands were warm, and the scent of his rain-soaked coat filled the small apartment.
For a moment, they both watched the street.
Warsaw was loud. Fast. Unknown.
“Do you regret it?” Michał asked quietly.
Anna raised an eyebrow.
“Regret what?”
“That we left everything behind.”
“We didn’t have much there,” she replied calmly.
“We had peace.”
Anna turned to face him.
“Michał.” She placed her hands on his cheeks. “You always said we should try something bigger.”
“Well… yes.”
“So we did.”
Michał sighed and smiled faintly.
“You’re right.”
At that moment, a phone rang somewhere in the apartment.
Anna glanced at the screen and instantly brightened.
“Karolina.”
Michał raised an eyebrow.
“That Karolina?”
“Yes.”
She answered the call.
“Hello?”
“So?!” an energetic female voice burst through the speaker. “Are you already in Warsaw?”
“Yes. We’re just unpacking.”
“I knew you’d be brave enough,” Karolina laughed. “How’s the apartment?”
Anna looked around the room.
The walls were still bare, and boxes covered the floor.
“Small, but cozy.”
“Perfect for a beginning,” Karolina said. “Come to the office tomorrow. I’ll show you everything.”
“Of course.”
“And tonight I’ll drop by.”
Anna looked at Michał.
“For dinner?”
“I have to meet your husband,” Karolina added.
Anna covered the microphone with her hand.
“Should I invite her?” she asked quietly.
Michał shrugged.
“Of course.”
Anna returned to the call.
“Come over. Seven?”
“I’ll be there right on time.”
She hung up.
Michał opened one of the boxes.
“Your famous friend?”
“My best one.”
“You’ve talked about her a lot.”
Anna walked over and kissed him on the cheek.
“Thanks to her, I got this job.”
“Then I’ll have to thank her.”
Anna smiled.
“I’m sure you two will like each other.”
That evening, the apartment smelled of pasta, garlic, and wine.
Anna moved busily around the small kitchen.
“Michał!” she called. “Can you pass me the wine from the cabinet?”
“Sure.”
Michał had just taken out the bottle when the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it,” he said.
He walked to the door and opened it.
A woman stood in the doorway wearing an elegant black coat.
Tall. Confident. Dark hair falling over her shoulders.
Karolina.
“Good evening,” she said with a smile.
Michał looked at her silently for a moment.
“Michał, right?” she asked calmly.
“Yes.”
“Karolina.”
She held out her hand.
Their hands met.
The handshake lasted a second.
Maybe two.
Maybe a little too long.
At that moment, Anna walked out of the kitchen.
“Karolina!”
The women hugged warmly.
“It’s so good to see you,” Karolina said.
“You too.”
Anna stepped back and gestured toward Michał.
“This is my husband.”
Karolina looked at him again.
Slowly.
Carefully.
A brief spark appeared in her eyes.
“You’re lucky, Ania,” she said with a faint smile.
Anna laughed.
“I know.”
She didn’t notice the glance Karolina and Michał exchanged over her shoulder.
The next morning Anna got off the bus a few streets from the city center.
In front of her stood a modern office building made of glass and steel.
She looked up.
The building was enormous.
“Okay,” she murmured to herself.
She walked inside.
A young woman sat at the reception desk.
“Good morning.”
“Good morning. I have a meeting with Karolina Nowak.”
The receptionist smiled.
“Of course. Ms. Karolina is already waiting.”
A few minutes later, the elevator stopped at the top floor.
The doors opened.
“Anka!”
Karolina was walking toward her quickly, dressed in an elegant navy blazer.
“It’s so good to see you!”
They hugged.
“All this is yours?” Anna asked, looking around the huge office.
“Not all of it yet,” Karolina laughed. “But I’m working on it.”
They walked toward her office.
“And how’s Michał?” Karolina asked.
“He’s sending his CV everywhere.”
Karolina stopped at the door.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “Warsaw offers opportunities.”
She opened the door to her office.
“And yesterday…” she added with a faint smile, “he made a good impression on me.”
Anna laughed.
“I knew you’d like each other.”
Karolina looked away and gazed through the window at the city.
Cars flowed through the streets like a stream of light.
A barely visible smile appeared on her lips.
“Yes,” she said quietly.
“I think we will.”
Chapter 2 — A Coincidence
Warsaw in the evening was a completely different city.
The traffic on the streets was slowly calming down, but the headlights of cars still slid across the wet asphalt like long, glowing snakes. The air carried the dampness left behind by a full day of rain.
Michał stepped out of an office building near Rondo Daszyńskiego and paused for a moment on the steps.
Another job interview was behind him.
And another one that hadn’t gone particularly well.
The interviewer had been polite but distant. He asked questions, typed notes into his laptop, and at the end said the sentence Michał was starting to know far too well.
“We’ll be in touch.”
Which usually meant one thing: probably not.
Michał slipped his hands into the pockets of his coat and started walking toward the bus stop.
Warsaw was enormous. Full of people rushing somewhere. Full of companies, offices, investments.
And yet finding a job was turning out to be harder than he had expected.
He stopped at a pedestrian crossing.
The light was red.
Cars passed in front of him one after another.
Then he heard a familiar voice behind him.
“Michał?”
He turned around.
A taxi had just stopped a few meters away by the curb. The door opened, and Karolina stepped out.
An elegant black coat rested on her shoulders. Her hair was tied in a loose ponytail, and she held a leather handbag in one hand.
She looked as if she had just come from an important meeting.
“What a coincidence,” she said with a smile.
Michał was clearly surprised.
“Karolina? What are you doing here?”
“Business meeting,” she replied calmly. “And you?”
Michał shrugged.
“Coming back from a job interview.”
Karolina studied him carefully for a moment.
“And how did it go?”
“We’ll see.”
It was a diplomatic answer.
Karolina seemed to sense that and smiled slightly.
“So… not great.”
Michał let out a quiet snort.
“You could say that.”
The light turned green.
They started walking across the street together.
“Anna said you’ve been sending your CV everywhere,” Karolina said.
“I’m trying.”
“Warsaw is difficult at the beginning.”
“I know.”
They reached a parking area along the street.
Karolina suddenly stopped.
“Actually, I have a small favor to ask.”
Michał looked at her questioningly.
“My car is in the shop,” she said. “And I still need to go a bit farther. Could you give me a ride?”
“Sure,” he answered without hesitation.
A moment later they were already sitting in his car.
The engine hummed softly as Michał pulled away from the curb.
For the first few minutes they drove in silence.
The city slid past the windows in streaks of light and rain.
Warsaw at night looked different.
More mysterious.
More unfamiliar.
“Anna trusts you very much,” Karolina said suddenly.
Michał shot her a quick glance.
“Why wouldn’t she?”
Karolina rested her head against the seat.
“That’s exactly why you’re happy.”
They stopped at a red light.
For a moment they both stared ahead.
Then Karolina turned her head and looked at Michał carefully.
As if she were trying to read something in him.
“You know…” she said quietly, “Warsaw can change people.”
The light turned green.
Michał drove on.
“I hope it doesn’t change us,” he replied.
Karolina smiled faintly.
“Every city changes people.”
For the rest of the drive they barely spoke.
A few minutes later Michał stopped the car in front of a modern apartment building.
Karolina glanced at it.
“I live here.”
“Nice place.”
“In Warsaw, you need a good place,” she said.
She opened the door, but before getting out she looked at Michał one more time.
“Don’t worry about that job.”
“Easy to say.”
“Sometimes the best opportunities appear by accident.”
She smiled.
“Good night, Michał.”
“Good night.”
She stepped out and closed the door.
Michał drove away slowly.
He didn’t notice that Karolina was still standing on the sidewalk, watching his car disappear down the street.
Her smile slowly faded.
In its place appeared a look of concentration.
As if she had just made a decision.
She took her phone out of her purse.
Dialed a number.
Someone answered almost immediately.
“Yes?” a male voice said.
Karolina looked once more toward the street where Michał’s car had vanished.
“I think I’ve found our man,” she said calmly.
There was a brief silence on the other end.
“Are you sure?”
Karolina smiled very slightly.
“Almost.”
She hung up.
Then she walked into the building.
And in her mind, a plan was already beginning to take shape.
Chapter 3 — The First Signature
The phone rang the next morning.
Michał was sitting at the kitchen table, slowly stirring his coffee. Outside, Warsaw was just waking up. The first cars appeared on the street, and people hurried toward bus stops.
A name appeared on the phone screen.
Karolina.
Michał answered after the second ring.
“Hi,” he said.
“I have good news,” she said immediately.
“I’m listening.”
“I spoke with that contact I mentioned. He wants to meet you today.”
Michał raised an eyebrow.
“That fast?”
“That’s how people work in Warsaw,” she replied lightly. “If they like someone, they don’t waste time.”
Michał smiled to himself.
“Where should I come?”
“I’ll send you the address.”
She hung up.
A moment later the phone vibrated. The message contained a location on the outskirts of the city.
Michał stared at the screen for a moment.
He didn’t know why, but he felt a slight tension.
Just then Anna walked into the kitchen.
“Who were you talking to?”
“Karolina found a meeting for me about a job.”
Anna’s face lit up instantly.
“I knew it!” she said. “Karolina always keeps her word.”
“I hope it’s something real.”
“It will be.”
She walked over and adjusted the collar of his shirt.
“You’ll make a good impression.”
Michał looked at her with a smile.
“And if I don’t?”
Anna shrugged.
“Then we’ll find something else.”
After a moment she added more quietly:
“Together.”
The building Michał drove to looked like a typical construction company office.
A metal gate. Several parked cars. A large warehouse stood to one side, and behind it scaffolding surrounded a building under renovation.
The air smelled of concrete and wet sand.
Michał parked his car and walked inside.
A man in his fifties sat in the office. He had short gray hair and the face of someone who had spent many years on construction sites.
He looked up.
“Michał Kowalski?”
“Yes.”
“Marek Wysocki.”
They shook hands.
The grip was firm.
“Karolina told me a lot about you,” Wysocki said.
“I hope it was good.”
“We’ll see.”
They sat at a large table in the office.
The conversation lasted almost an hour.
Michał talked about his studies, his experience working on construction projects, and the developments he had supervised in his previous company.
Wysocki listened carefully.
Sometimes he asked short questions.
Sometimes he simply nodded.
At the end he stood up.
“I think we can give it a try.”
Michał felt relief wash over him.
“When can I start?”
“Even tomorrow.”
That evening Anna opened the door before Michał could take his keys out.
“And?” she asked.
Michał raised his arms in triumph.
“I got the job.”
Anna threw her arms around his neck.
“I knew it!”
“Thanks to your friend.”
“We have to invite her for dinner.”
“Again?”
Anna laughed.
“Of course.”
Two days later Karolina sat at the table with them.
Wine and dinner prepared by Anna stood on the table.
Candles cast a warm glow on the apartment walls.
“So everything worked out,” Karolina said, raising her glass.
“Thanks to you,” Anna said.
“Don’t exaggerate.”
Michał looked at her.
“You really helped me.”
Karolina returned his gaze.
“I like helping people I trust.”
Anna didn’t notice that the same strange tension had appeared between them again.
After dinner Anna went to the kitchen to get dessert.
Only the two of them remained in the living room.
Karolina slowly set her glass down.
“So how are your first days at work?” she asked.
“Calm.”
“Calm is good.”
Michał looked at her questioningly.
“What do you mean?”
Karolina smiled slightly.
“Nothing special.”
She stood up and walked to the window.
The city lights reflected in the glass.
“You know,” she said quietly, “sometimes in life an opportunity appears that changes everything.”
“Like moving to Warsaw?”
“Something like that.”
She turned to face him.
“But for some people, an ordinary job isn’t enough.”
Michał frowned.
“I don’t understand.”
Karolina looked him straight in the eyes.
“Relax.”
She smiled.
“There will be time for us to talk about it.”
At that moment Anna returned with dessert.
“What are you talking about?”
Karolina instantly changed her tone.
“Michał’s job.”
Anna sat beside her husband and smiled happily.
“See? Everything is working out.”
Karolina looked at her for a moment.
“Yes,” she said calmly.
“Exactly the way it should.”
Michał’s first week at the new job passed faster than he expected.
Every day he arrived early in the morning. He reviewed documents, checked construction plans, and spoke with teams working on projects across Warsaw.
At first glance, everything looked normal.
Marek Wysocki’s company specialized in renovating large buildings and modernizing office spaces.
And yet sometimes Michał had the strange feeling that not everything was as transparent as it should be.
One afternoon Wysocki called him into his office.
“Michał, got a minute?”
“Of course.”
Several thick folders lay on the desk.
“Sit down.”
Michał sat across from him.
“How do you like working here?”
“Good,” Michał answered honestly.
“Glad to hear it.”
Wysocki opened one of the folders and slid it toward him.
“I need your signature on a few documents.”
Michał looked at the papers.
“What are they about?”
“Formalities for one of the renovations. Nothing major.”
Michał began reading the first page.
“It says here the materials have already been delivered to the construction site.”
“Yes.”
“But they’re supposed to arrive next week.”
Wysocki looked at him calmly.
“Paperwork.”
“I don’t understand.”
“In this business sometimes you need to move the documents a little faster. Otherwise everything stops.”
Michał stayed silent for a moment.
“Is that normal?”
Wysocki shrugged.
“In Warsaw? More than you think.”
Silence filled the room.
“If you have a problem with it,” Wysocki added calmly, “we can find another solution.”
Michał felt tension tightening in his chest.
He didn’t want to lose the job after just one week.
He picked up a pen.
Signed the first document.
Then the second.
And the third.
Wysocki closed the folder.
“I knew we’d understand each other.”
That same evening Michał stepped out to a nearby store.
His phone rang as he was walking back home.
Karolina.
“How was the first week?” she asked.
“Pretty good.”
“Did you sign any documents today?”
Michał stopped on the stairway.
“How do you know?”
Karolina laughed softly.
“Wysocki called me.”
“Why?”
“Because I recommended you.”
There was a moment of silence.
“Was he satisfied?”
“Very.”
After a moment she said calmly:
“Michał… remember one thing.”
“What?”
“In life there are moments when you need to trust the right people.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning me.”
She hung up.
Michał stared at his phone for a moment.
He didn’t know why, but he had the feeling he had just taken the first step toward something he didn’t yet understand.
A few streets away Karolina was sitting in her car.
A thin folder lay on the seat beside her.
She opened it slowly.
On the first page there was a signature.
Michał Kowalski.
Karolina smiled slowly.
“The first step,” she said quietly.
Chapter 4 — The First Crack
Tuesday morning was cold and gray.
Michał woke earlier than usual. For a moment he lay in bed staring at the ceiling, trying to organize his thoughts.
Yesterday’s meeting was still on his mind.
Karolina.
Wysocki.
And that man — Tomasz.
“So you’re the one signing the documents.”
The sentence wouldn’t leave him alone.
Beside him Anna was still sleeping peacefully, turned away from him. Her hair was spread across the pillow.
Michał got up quietly and went to the kitchen.
He made coffee.
Outside the window the city was slowly waking up.
When he returned to the bedroom, Anna was already awake.
“You’re up early,” she said sleepily.
“Couldn’t sleep.”
“Too much work?”
Michał hesitated.
“A little.”
Anna propped herself up on one elbow.
“Everything okay?”
“Yes,” he replied quickly. “Just a lot of new things.”
She smiled softly.
“I knew you’d manage.”
The Wysocki company office was strangely quiet that day.
Michał entered his office and noticed another folder waiting for him on the desk.
A shadow of unease crossed his mind.
He opened it.
This time the documents concerned the renovation of a warehouse in Praga.
Invoices.
Contracts.
Reports.
And again several places marked with yellow sticky notes.
Signature.
Michał turned the pages slowly.
The amounts were enormous.
Some of the companies appeared for the first time.
“Already working?”
He looked up.
Wysocki was standing in the doorway.
“I’m reviewing the documents,” Michał replied.
Wysocki stepped closer.
“It’s an important project.”
“I can see that.”
Michał pointed to one of the invoices.
“This company… I’ve never heard of it.”
“New subcontractor.”
“It’s not listed in the construction schedule.”
Wysocki shrugged.
“Paperwork always lags behind reality a little.”
Michał closed the folder.
“Is it often like this here?”
Wysocki looked at him silently for a moment.
Then he said calmly:
“Michał, in this business there are two kinds of people.”
“What kinds?”
“Those who ask questions.”
He paused briefly.
“And those who make money.”
The silence in the office felt heavy.
Wysocki gestured toward the documents.
“Sign.”
Michał looked once more at the papers.
Then at Wysocki.
Finally he picked up a pen.
He signed.
That afternoon he left the office earlier than usual.
He needed some air.
He stopped the car near the Vistula River and sat quietly for a moment, watching the water.
His phone vibrated.
Karolina.
“Hi,” he answered.
“How’s your day?”
“Intense.”
“Did you sign more documents?”
Michał frowned.
“How do you know?”
Karolina laughed softly.
“Wysocki likes to share good news.”
“For me they’re not always good news.”
Silence fell on the other end of the line.
“Michał,” she finally said calmly, “are you starting to worry?”
“A little.”
“You don’t need to.”
“Easy for you to say.”
Karolina sighed softly.
“Let’s meet tomorrow.”
“Again?”
“Yes.”
“What for?”
“Because you need to understand what you’re getting into.”
The words hung in the air.
“I thought I was already in it,” Michał said.
Karolina replied calmly:
“Not yet.”
And she hung up.
That same evening, a few kilometers away, only one light was on in a modern office building in the city center.
Three people sat at a large table.
Karolina.
Wysocki.
And Tomasz.
A folder with documents lay on the table.
Tomasz flipped through the pages slowly.
“He signs everything,” he finally said.
“I told you,” Karolina replied.
“He’s starting to ask questions,” Wysocki noted.
Karolina smiled faintly.
“That’s good.”
Tomasz looked at her carefully.
“Why?”
Karolina took a sip of wine.
“Because when someone starts asking questions… it means it’s already too late for them to walk away.”
Tomasz closed the folder.
“When is the next stage?”
Karolina looked out the window at the night skyline of Warsaw.
The city lights reflected in the glass.
“Soon.”
“How soon?”
Karolina turned toward them.
A calm expression appeared on her face.
“Very soon.”
Chapter 5 — The First Signal
Michał sat in front of his computer screen in the empty office.
It was already past seven in the evening, and most of the employees had long since gone home.
Silence filled the floor.
Only the light from his monitor reflected in the glass walls of the conference room.
He was reviewing financial statements from one of the new companies managed by Karolina. At first glance everything looked normal — transfers, invoices, standard accounting operations.
But something didn’t add up.
Michał frowned and zoomed in on one of the documents.
A transfer.
A large amount.
Three million euros.
Recipient: a company registered in Cyprus.
That wasn’t unusual in the world of investments, but one detail caught his attention.
The company appeared in the documents… only once.
“Strange,” he murmured under his breath.
He clicked into the transaction history.
And then he noticed something else.
The same account number appeared in several other companies connected to the firm.
Except each of those companies had a different owner.
Michał leaned back in his chair.
“What the…”
At that moment he heard the sound of the elevator.
The doors opened somewhere down the corridor.
Michał glanced at the clock.
19:42.
Who else would still be in the office at this hour?
Footsteps.
Slow.
Someone was walking toward the finance department.
Instinctively, Michał minimized the window with the documents.
The office door opened.
Karolina stood in the doorway.
“I knew you’d still be here,” she said with a faint smile.
Michał exhaled.
“You scared me.”
Karolina walked in and leaned against the desk.
“What are you working on?”
Michał hesitated for a second.
“Checking the documents from the last transaction.”
“The Cypriot one?”
Michał looked at her carefully.
“Yes.”
For a moment silence filled the office.
Karolina smiled slightly.
“In the world of investments, things like that are normal.”
“Maybe.”
“Michał…” she said calmly, “sometimes it’s better not to ask too many questions.”
Her voice was soft, but there was something strange in those words.
Like a warning.
Or advice.
Michał closed the laptop.
“Thanks for the tip.”
Karolina watched him for a moment.
“I just don’t want you getting into something you don’t fully understand yet.”
Michał smiled faintly.
“Relax. It’s just numbers.”
Karolina nodded.
But when she turned to leave, her smile disappeared.
As if something had suddenly unsettled her.
And Michał had no idea that he had just discovered the first trace of an operation that would soon pull him into one of the most dangerous financial games of his life.
Chapter 6 — The Trail
The next few days passed faster than Michał had expected.
He signed documents.
He met with people from construction sites.
He attended meetings where numbers were thrown around so large they had stopped making any impression.
From the outside, everything looked normal.
But inside he felt a growing weight.
Every signature reminded him of his conversation with Karolina.
Of the line he had crossed.
One morning Michał drove to one of the new construction sites on the outskirts of the city.
The huge area was surrounded by a tall wire fence. Inside, excavators and trucks were moving slowly, and several workers in orange safety vests walked across the muddy ground.
Michał stepped out of his car and looked around.
Something didn’t feel right.
According to the documents, the project was already halfway completed.
But on the site they had only just begun the groundwork.
“Boss?”
He turned around.
The site manager, an older man with a gray beard, approached him slowly.
“Mr. Michał?”
“Yes.”
“They told me you’d be coming.”
Michał gestured toward the construction site.
“What stage are we at?”
The man looked across the site.
“We’re starting the foundations.”
Michał frowned.
“Starting?”
“Yes.”
“But last week’s report says the structure is forty percent complete.”
The manager looked at him strangely.
“That’s the first I’ve heard of it.”
For a moment they stood there in silence.
Finally the man said quietly,
“Mr. Michał… let me give you some advice.”
“What advice?”
“You’d better not dig too deeply into those papers.”
Michał felt the familiar knot tighten in his stomach.
“Why does everyone keep telling me that?”
The manager shrugged.
“Because everyone just wants to work in peace.”
That afternoon Michał returned to the office.
Another envelope was waiting on his desk.
No sender.
Inside there was only a single sheet of paper.
A short message printed on an ordinary printer.
“Check the company Nord-Bud.”
Michał felt his heart begin to beat faster.
He glanced around the office.
The door was closed.
No one was watching.
He sat down at the computer and typed the company’s name.
A few seconds later the results appeared on the screen.
Business registry.
Address.
Phone number.
And something else.
The company’s founding date.
Three months ago.
A cold shiver ran down Michał’s spine.
A company that, according to the documents, was carrying out projects worth millions…
had existed for only three months.
That evening he met Karolina in a small restaurant in the city center.
She was sitting at a table by the window, as if nothing unusual had happened.
“You look tired,” she said.
“I was at one of the construction sites today.”
“And?”
“Something doesn’t add up.”
Karolina raised an eyebrow.
“What exactly?”
“The projects are much further along on paper than they are in reality.”
Karolina smiled faintly.
“Michał…”
“And I checked Nord-Bud.”
For a moment her smile disappeared.
Just for a second.
But Michał noticed.
“You learn quickly,” she said calmly.
“That company has existed for three months.”
“I know.”
“So how is it doing projects worth millions?”
Karolina leaned back comfortably in her chair.
“Because someone allows it.”
“You?”
“I’m only part of the puzzle.”
Michał looked at her in silence.
“What exactly did you pull me into?” he finally asked.
Karolina looked straight into his eyes.
“Something very big.”
“How big?”
Karolina smiled slowly.
“Big enough that if you went to the police right now…”
she paused,
“…they would knock on your door first.”
The silence between them felt heavy.
“All the documents are signed by you,” she added calmly.
Michał felt a chill run through him.
“So I’m the perfect scapegoat.”
Karolina leaned slightly across the table.
“No.”
“Then what am I?”
Her smile returned.
“A man who can make more money than he ever imagined.”
“And if I don’t want to?”
Karolina looked out the window at the city’s night lights.
“Then we’ll start having a real problem.”
A few streets away, in a parked car, someone sat in the darkness.
On the passenger seat lay a camera with a long lens.
The man had just taken a photograph through the restaurant window.
In the picture, Michał and Karolina were clearly visible at their table.
The man glanced at his phone and dialed a number.
“I’ve got them,” he said quietly.
“Both of them.”
There was a brief silence on the other end.
“Good,” a calm voice replied. “Continue the surveillance.”
The man hung up.
And took another photo.
Chapter 7 — The Observer
For the next two days, everything looked surprisingly normal.
Michał came to work as usual. He answered phone calls, reviewed reports from construction sites, and signed the documents that landed on his desk.
But inside he felt something completely different.
Unease.
It wasn’t just about the paperwork anymore.
It was the awareness that now someone might be watching his every move.
On Wednesday morning he drove to another construction site, this time on the northern outskirts of the city.
A large area surrounded by corrugated metal fencing. In the middle of the site stood two excavators and several trucks.
Michał parked his car and stepped out.
As he walked through the gate, he noticed a man standing near the fence.
Elegant coat. Leather briefcase. Sunglasses.
He didn’t look like someone who belonged on a construction site.
The man was observing the area, as if committing every detail to memory.
Their eyes met for a moment.
The stranger nodded slightly, as if he recognized him.
Michał returned the gesture and continued walking.
But there was something strange about that look.
Too attentive.
That afternoon, when he returned to the office, Marta from accounting stopped him in the hallway.
“Michał, do you have a minute?”
“Sure.”
She closed the door to her small office.
“Someone from the authorities was here today.”
Michał felt a slight pressure in his chest.
“Which authority?”
“Tax inspection.”
Silence fell between them.
“What did they want?”
“They asked about the projects from the last few months. Invoices. Subcontractor companies.”
“Which ones?”
Marta looked at him meaningfully.
“Nord-Bud.”
Michał felt a cold chill run through him.
“What did you tell them?”
“The usual.”
“Which means?”
“That everything matches the documentation.”
Michał leaned against the desk.
“And they believed you?”
Marta shrugged.
“I don’t know.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
For a moment the woman watched him in silence.
“Because you seem like the only person here who hasn’t gotten used to all of this yet.”
“Used to what?”
“To the fact that in this company… certain things are simply done.”
Michał didn’t answer.
That evening Karolina called him herself.
“I heard someone from the authorities came by today,” she said calmly.
“How do you know?”
“I have good sources.”
“Should we be worried?”
There was a brief silence on the other end of the line.
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Michał… inspections like this happen all the time.”
“And if they start digging deeper?”
Karolina laughed quietly.
“Then someone will tell them to stop.”
“Who?”
“The people who really run this city.”
Michał felt that he was beginning to understand more and more.
And what he was starting to understand… he didn’t like at all.
“Let’s meet tomorrow,” Karolina added.
“Why?”
“Because I want to introduce you to someone.”
“To who?”
Karolina answered calmly.
“To someone who will decide whether you’re truly valuable to us.”
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