Chapter Three #5
Another name appeared lower on the list, tied loosely to a logistics company already in the Cerberus chart.
A third guest had attended the Lyon event around the time one of Kade’s suspected intermediaries surfaced there.
None of it proved Kade would be present, but truthfully, we could be looking at Kade’s real name and not even know it.
It was enough to make the party interesting.
Raven opened photographs of the estate from a property listing several years earlier.
The pool occupied most of the rear terrace, with white stone around it and private cabanas lining the lower garden.
Thick hedges concealed portions of the property from the road, and the surrounding terrain created enough elevation changes that Hawk would probably find several places to disappear.
I stared at the image.
“When was the last time ARC knew where something might happen before it already happened?”
Raven didn’t answer immediately.
“Not recently.”
That answer decided it for me.
“We tell Wolf.”
Raven held up one finger. “You have spent two days lecturing everyone about assumptions. We are not walking over there and announcing that Kade is attending a pool party because Luca Bellandi likes champagne.”
“I wasn’t going to say Kade is attending.”
“Your face was.”
“Everyone here needs to stop reading my face.”
“Then develop a worse face.”
We verified what we could and it was still circumstantial, but it was definitely harder to dismiss now than it had been an hour earlier.
By the time we brought the information to Wolf, my ponytail had given up completely.
I pulled the elastic free as Raven loaded the estate images onto the main screen, and my dark hair fell over my shoulders in waves that had become thicker and less cooperative as the day went on.
I ran my fingers through the front and twisted one side behind my ear, then realized Wolf was already standing at the end of the table watching Raven’s screen.
He had showered after training and changed into a black t-shirt with dark cargo pants, but the mask remained.
The snake coiled around his exposed forearm as he braced one hand against the table.
He glanced my way when I sat down and I couldn’t tell whether he had noticed my hair or the dried mud along my shoes.
Raven then brought up the payment chain.
“Aster Private Events. Legitimate company, as far as we can tell. One Cerberus-linked shell has paid them four times. Two previous payment dates line up with events where people from Kade’s wider financial network later surfaced. Fourth payment was eleven days ago.”
I’d noticed that whenever the team briefed Wolf, they kept it tight and gave him only what he needed. Wolf looked toward the estate image.
“And this is the event.”
“Three days from now,” Raven said. “Private estate. Restricted guest list but we have a partial.”
I slid Luca Bellandi’s file across the table.
“Bellandi is confirmed,” I said with Raven’s short cadence. “No direct Kade link, but his firm touched two companies that later moved Cerberus money. Another guest has a logistics connection already in the chart.”
Wolf read the page.
“Could be nothing.”
“Absolutely,” I said.
His eyes lifted toward me, perhaps surprised that I hadn’t argued.
I continued. “It could also be the first place we’ve found before everyone important has already left.”
Wolf looked back at the screen.
Hawk and Viper had joined us without my noticing. Bear came in from the garage a moment later, wiping his hands on a shop towel, and Jackal abandoned the couch as soon as he realized something operational was happening.
Wolf enlarged the estate map.
“Road access?”
Raven brought up the satellite view. “Main entrance south. Service road east, probably staff and deliveries. North side backs into wooded elevation.”
Wolf looked toward Hawk.
“Sight lines?”
Hawk studied the image. “North ridge if access is clean. West could work, but trees are thicker.”
“Check both.”
Wolf looked toward Raven. “Network?”
“Event company brings temporary communications. I can work the perimeter first, see what they’re broadcasting and how much of it is isolated.”
“Do it.”
Bear pointed toward the service road. “Security vehicles will probably stage here.”
Wolf nodded.
Viper looked at the guest entrance. “Valet gives us plates.”
“If we can get close enough without showing our faces,” Wolf said.
Jackal folded his arms. “Traffic pattern on that road is going to be obvious if we sit too long.”
Wolf considered that for a few seconds.
I watched him build the operation in real time, the same way he’d moved everyone around the training structure that morning.
Hawk got distance. Raven got the electronic picture.
Bear looked at physical access, Viper and Jackal considered movement around the estate, and Wolf sat over all of it deciding what could be used without letting the party know ARC existed.
He finally looked at the full image again.
“We watch it.”
I leaned forward. “From where?”
He turned toward me.
“Outside.”
“I figured that part out.”
“Then why ask?”
“Because I’d like to understand the plan before I read it afterward.”
Wolf ignored the edge in my voice and pointed toward the map.
“Hawk surveys the north and west positions tomorrow. Raven works the event company’s network from distance. We identify vehicles, staff, guests and security before anyone makes contact.”
“And if Kade appears?”
The room went quieter.
Wolf looked at me.
“Then we confirm him.”
“And?”
“And we don’t ruin a useful position because you want an exciting fucking answer on day three.”
My mouth tightened as Jackal looked toward the wall screen with admirable commitment. I sat back, letting him have this one.
“Right. Surveillance.”
“Good.”
There was that word again.
Wolf turned toward Raven. “Build the package.”
The team began moving.
I stayed seated for another moment, looking at the photograph of the estate stretched across the main screen.
Blue water filled the center of the image, bright against white stone, while the house wrapped around it behind tall walls designed to keep everyone outside from seeing exactly who had been invited in.
For the first time since I had opened the ARC files on the plane, we had a place that might matter before it became another empty building in a report. The party was three days away at a private estate, and the guest list was already brushing the edges of Kade’s network.
I picked up my notebook and wrote the date beneath the photograph.
This time, we were early.