I type back:Same. Dead ends everywhere.
Her response comes quickly:Come back to the hotel. You need to rest.
I ignore the message and turn back to Boris. “What about the guards we captured at the estate? Have they given us anything useful?”
“Sergei’s been interrogating them all day. Most of them were hired through an agency three days before the meeting. They don’t know anything about Adrian’s operations beyond what they saw at Thornfield.”
“And the ones who weren’t hired through an agency?”
“Two of them have worked for Adrian for years. They’re not talking.” Boris’s expression darkens. “Yet.”
I nod. I don’t ask what methods Sergei is using. Some questions are better left unasked.
Another hour passes. Another location checked and cleared. Another thread that leads nowhere.
By the time I finally leave the command center, it’s well past midnight. The London streets are quiet as I make my way back to the hotel with my shoulder throbbing with every step. I should eat something. I should sleep. I should do any number of things that would make me more effective tomorrow.
Instead, I spread the maps and intelligence reports across the desk in our hotel room and start going through them again. There has to be something we missed. Some pattern we haven’trecognized. Some connection that will lead us to Adrian before he can regroup and come at us again.
I don’t hear Sasha come in until she’s standing right behind me.
“It’s two in the morning,” she notes.
I startle at her voice and then reply, “I know.”
“You’ve been at this for almost twenty hours.”
“I know, too.”
She puts a hand on my good shoulder. “You need to sleep, Tony. You’re no good to anyone if you collapse from exhaustion.”
I shake my head without looking up from the reports. “I can’t. Not while he’s still out there.”
“Adrian isn’t going anywhere tonight. He’s wounded and running scared. Whatever move he makes next, it won’t happen in the next few hours.”
“You don’t know that.” I flip to another page and review the same information I’ve already read a dozen times. “He could be planning something right now. Reaching out to his coalition, arranging another attack. Every minute we waste is a minute he uses to get stronger.”
“And every minute you spend running yourself into the ground is a minute you’re less capable of stopping him. Look at yourself, Tony. You’re pale, you’re shaking, and that bandage needs changing. When was the last time you ate?”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine. You’re obsessing, and it’s going to get you killed.”
I finally look up at her. “What do you want me to do, Sasha? Go to bed and pretend everything’s okay? Adrian is out there right now, planning God knows what, and we have no idea where he is or what he’s going to do next. I can’t just?—”
She reaches down and pulls the reports out of my hands.
“Hey—”
“No.” She tosses the papers onto the bed, scattering them across the covers. “You’re done for tonight.”
“Sasha, give those back.”
“Make me.”
I stand from the chair, and pain lances through my shoulder. “This isn’t a game. Adrian wants to destroy your family. He wants to take you. And I’m not going to let that happen because I was too tired to see the threat coming.”
“And I’m not going to let you destroy yourself trying to protect me.” She steps closer until we’re almost chest to chest. “I need you functional, Tony. I need you sharp. And right now, you’re neither of those things.”
