"What if they hurt him?"
"They won't. Not yet. He's leverage, Dominic. He's only useful intact. Luca Castellano is smarter than his father in some respects and one of them is that he understands the value of a hostage who can be returned undamaged. A damaged hostage means war. An undamaged hostage means a deal."
The logic is sound. The logic doesn't touch the thing inside my chest. I told Theo he was protected. I told him the Castellanos wouldn't get to him. I said it with the same certainty I say everything.
He was starting to believe me.
"Viktor," my father says. He hasn't raised his voice. Viktor appears in the doorway within seconds, which means he was just outside.
"You told me Cath communicated with the Castellanos through a prepaid phone. Does she still have it?"
Viktor looks at me. I look at my father. The thought hadn't occurred to me. We fired Cath to maintain her cover. The Castellanos think she's been caught and dismissed. But the phone. The prepaid phone they left in her locker six weeks ago.
"Call her," my father says.
Viktor dials, putting the phone on broadcast. The ringing fills the office. Two rings. Three. Four.
"Viktor?” Cath's voice, strained, alert.
"Cath. Are you somewhere you can talk?"
"I'm at home. What's happened? I saw the security team clearing people out after I left. What's—"
I take the phone. "Cath, it's Dom. Theo's been taken. From the building, this afternoon. Castellanos."
Silence. Two seconds.
"Oh God."
"The phone they gave you. The prepaid. Do you still have it?"
"It's in my handbag. I always keep it on me. They said I had to answer within two rings or—" She stops. "It hasn't rung. Not since this morning."
"What did they say this morning?"
"Nothing unusual. The usual instructions. Which tables, which shifts. Except." She pauses. "There was something. He told me to make sure I was working the main floor between four and five today. Visible and in position. I didn't think anything of it."
"They don't know you've been turned," I say.
"No. They think I was fired with the others."
"They'll contact you," my father says from across the room. "They think you're angry and frightened and newly unemployed. You're useful to them again. They will reach out."
"And when they do?" Cath's voice is thin.
"You answer. You tell them exactly what happened. You're furious. You want to know what happens now, whether Lily is still safe. And you listen. Any location, any name, any sound in the background that tells us where they're operating from."
"You want me back in."
"I wouldn't ask if there was another way."
There’s silence on the line. I can hear a television in the background. Cartoons. Lily is there. Cath is in her living room with her granddaughter and I'm asking her to put herself back inside the machine.
She exhales. A long, shaking breath. "Whatever you need, Dom. You know that."
The line goes dead. I set the phone on the desk.
Viktor's tablet buzzes. He picks it up, reads, and his face changes.
