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I look at his bandaged hand. “Are you going to take him?”

“No.”

“Move him deeper into this estate and call it safety?”

“Yes, until I know who opened that service door.”

“Without asking me?”

“With you.” He steps closer.

I search his face. He’s asking, and I have no prepared argument for that.

A message flashes across the central monitor. Dmitri has begun questioning the captured intruder. Below it, Abramov confirms a second transmitter. He says it was planted during a plumbing repair fourteen days earlier. It opened the inner service door and disabled the west-wing cameras and alarms.

Alexei reads the report, then looks at me.

“Belov prepared this before he knew Misha was here,” I say.

“He prepared access,” Alexei replies. “Then he changed the target.”

My stomach tightens.

“Belov is my enemy.” He lifts his injured hand and points toward Misha’s name on the transfer order. “And from this moment on, every enemy I have is his enemy too.”

20

ALEXEI

It’s seven in the morning, and the west wing has been stripped to concrete, cables, and armed men.

Maksim refuses to let me near it until Dr. Yelena checks my wounds. Irina gives me antibiotics and something for the pain. Mrs. Wentworth arrives with chicken broth and boiled barley, places the tray in front of me, and waits until I eat two spoonfuls.

“That isn’t breakfast,” she says.

“It’s enough to keep me conscious.”

“It’s enough to annoy me.”

Maksim points toward my chair. “You work from the office. The cameras are live, every team has an earpiece, and Abramov will answer when you speak.”

I accept because arguing will waste time. Kirill divides the office monitors into camera views and opens the audio feeds, so I can see each team and hear every report.

“Start at the service entrance,” I tell Abramov. “Remove every access panel between there and Vera’s suite. Don’t put anything back until Kirill checks the wiring.”

Abramov looks up at the nearest camera. “That leaves half the west wing open.”

“Then keep it open.”

On another screen, Dima stands outside the staff lockers downstairs.

“Search every locker twice,” I tell him. “Take pictures before you touch anything, even the trash.”

“You think they left something behind?”

“Maybe.”

Two technicians open the medical-bay wall and expose the transmitter behind the wires. One reaches for his cutters.