13. Fly On The Wall #2
Adrian gives him nothing. “I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Of course.”
Rimsky almost smiles. Then he looks toward Victor.
“Whatever organization your companion belongs to, tell them I can give them the Council proxies, financial channels they haven’t found and names they don’t yet know to look for.”
Jan looks at me. Dimitry does too.
I’ve got maybe a minute to decide whether this is the best intelligence opportunity HAVEN has ever been handed or a trap designed to make Adrian expose himself.
I look at Dimitry. “Do you trust him?”
“No.”
The answer is immediate.
“But?”
“He just gave us a protocol from my father’s inner network. He didn’t need to do that unless he wanted us to verify he had access to it.”
“Does that make him genuine?”
“It makes this part genuine.”
Bloody hell. That’s all I’m getting.
I key Victor’s channel and use the phrase we agreed on before he left.
“Weather remains clear.”
Continue.
Victor gives the smallest dip of his head. Rimsky sees it.
His eyes sharpen. “You are listening.”
Adrian doesn’t answer. Smart man.
Rimsky lowers his voice. “I can also give you something you may need sooner than the rest. There’s another way out of this bunker. An emergency exit built into the original structure. Most of the people sitting at that table have forgotten it exists.”
That gets my full attention. Jan’s too.
Rimsky glances toward the camera at the end of the corridor.
“Thirty seconds.”
Adrian finally speaks. “And why would you do any of this?”
Something changes in Rimsky’s face.
“Because I’ve spent twenty years watching these people mistake inheritance for the right to own human beings.”
Footsteps sound beyond the corner. Rimsky steps away.
“Arsenyev first. Then decide whether I’m lying.”
He walks off before Adrian can answer.
Seconds later, the surveillance indicators come back online.
Two minutes. That’s all he gave us.
But it’s enough to change the operation.
I look at Dimitry.
“Lev Arsenyev.”
“Yes.”
I rub a hand over my face.
“Poor bastard’s got arse in his name.”
Jan closes her eyes.
Dimitry stares at me. “Are you twelve?”
“Been a long bloody day, mate.”
Crew snorts behind us.
Then I look back at the screen.
“Find out everything you know about him.”
Blackstone Ventures HQ, San Francisco. 0205 hours.
Rimsky returns to the Council table as though the last two minutes never happened.
I wish I could say the same.
Jan stays beside me while Dimitry and Crew watch the feed. Adrian takes his seat, Victor moves back into position behind him, and the conversation resumes around them.
My mind is somewhere else entirely.
Council proxies. Financial channels. Names we don’t know yet. A second exit from the bunker.
And Lev bloody Arsenyev.
I send a priority call to G.
His face appears on one of the side screens seconds later. He’s home, headset on, Felicity moving somewhere behind him.
“Tell me.”
I forward everything we captured from Rimsky’s exchange.
The meeting has moved onto financial structures. Rothman is speaking now, referencing holding companies that mean nothing to me but apparently mean plenty to Harmony and Rafael, because they’re both still here despite being told to go home.
Harmony is logging everything as they speak while Rafael works beside her, pulling names and companies into the structure as they’re mentioned.
I wonder what Rothman would say if he knew his prick of a son has been sitting in one of our safe house cells for more than a year, singing like a bloody canary.
I look across at them.
Harmony doesn’t even glance up. “Don’t.”
“You’re supposed to be leaving.”
“In five minutes.”
“You said that fifteen minutes ago.”
Rafael keeps typing. “She’s lying again.”
“Yeah, sorry. I lied,” she says. “This is too good to miss.”
Jan smiles.
I point toward the door. “Five.”
“Yes, Dad.”
Bloody hell. I’m surrounded by workaholics.
Rothman mentions another company. Harmony’s fingers stop.
“What?”
She turns her screen toward me. “That one’s appeared before. One of the shell companies tied to the Westbrook transfers.”
Now she has my attention.
“Send it to G.”
She does, and another piece drops into place.
The Council members aren’t merely discussing their empire anymore. They’re giving us the map.
Names we’ve chased independently are connecting to one another. Companies we thought belonged to separate operations are appearing in the same financial structures. Proxies sit between families and assets, keeping the Twelve away from anything that could lead directly back to them.
Until tonight.
A notification appears on my screen.
G.
I open the channel.
“Got something,” he says. “The bunker schematic Rimsky referenced exists. Original construction plans show a secondary service passage on the eastern side. It disappears from every later renovation plan.”
Jan leans closer. “Can you locate the exit?”
“Working on it.”
“Rimsky’s telling the truth about the bunker,” I say.
“About that part,” Dimitry reminds me.
Fair.
Another message arrives from G less than ten minutes later.
This time he puts a diagram onto our screen.
A narrow passage branches from the rear section of the bunker and runs beneath the property before emerging beyond the main security perimeter.
Crew lets out a low whistle.
“That could get them out.”
“If they can reach it,” Jan says.
I study the route. “Send it to Victor.”
G shakes his head. “Not yet. Their devices are still outside. I’ll have it ready the second they reconnect.”
“Send it to Bear,” I say. “I want his team moving toward that exit before we need them.”
G nods.
“And keep the schematic up. If Victor has to use it, you walk him through every bloody turn.”
“Already planned.”
I key Victor’s channel.
“We’ve found your secondary route. Bear’s getting into position. If you need it, G will guide you out.”
Victor doesn’t answer, but his head dips slightly.
Message received.
The wire lets us hear them. It doesn’t magically give Victor a screen underground.
“Keep going.”
“Already am.”
G gets back to work.
The meeting continues. Another company name. Another official. Another account structure.
I stop looking at the clock.
When G comes back on-screen, there’s no trace of sleep in his face.
“Steve.”
Something in his voice brings everyone’s attention around.
“I found a back-channel.”
Jan straightens beside me.
“You’re sure?”
“Not inside yet. But the companies they’re discussing gave me enough to trace the infrastructure. Legacy has been running encrypted communications through systems hidden behind three commercial networks. I’ve got an entry point.”
Jesus.
Eighteen months of chasing Meridian operations from one disaster to the next, always arriving after someone had already made the decision to hurt another human being.
This could put us upstream.
I look at the main screen. Victor and Adrian are still sitting among the Twelve.
They’re not clear yet, so I don’t celebrate.
But when they walk out of that bunker, they’re bringing us something HAVEN has never had before.
A way inside.
I look at Jan.
“We’ve got our way in.”