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 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 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?"
