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Kit swore, and Sokolov moved immediately. He drew a compact device from inside his jacket and pressed one button. A low electronic pulse moved through the room, more felt than heard, and my earpiece went silent. As quickly as I could, I slipped two fingers beneath the neck of my sweater and pressed the button on the collar.

Dmitry crossed the distance between us. I stepped back, but he caught a fistful of my hair and pulled my head sideways, exposing the tiny receiver behind my ear. His expression went cold, then he tore the earpiece free and crushed it beneath his shoe.

Steel locks slammed through the warehouse one after another. The loading doors sealed. Red lights appeared above every exit as Dmitry’s men drew their weapons and spread across the floor.

Sokolov closed the archive window and switched the node into execution mode. The folders vanished, replaced by the four pending authentication fields. The key remained connected.

Levon seized my wrist and dragged my hand toward the authorization papers.

“Sign,” he demanded.

I turned into his grip instead of pulling away, rotating my wrist toward the gap between his thumb and forefinger the way Nikolai taught me. For one second, his hold broke, and I drove the heel of my palm beneath his chin, and Levon staggered backward with a curse.

I ran.

One of the Volkov men caught me before I reached the door. One arm locked across my ribs, crushing my elbows against my body. Another man took my left wrist and twisted it behind me. Levon recovered, pressing one hand beneath his jaw. Rage stripped away the last of his polish.

“Hold her hand flat.”

The nominee placed the authorization flat on the desk and set a thin black authentication tablet beside it. The tablet mirrored the four pending fields from the Veles computer.

Dmitry lifted one hand. “Don’t hurt her.”

Levon turned on him. “I just need her signature.”

“And I need her alive when Sergei arrives.”

“She’s still alive,” Levon spat.

“For now,” Dmitry smirked.

Levon backhanded me hard enough that my teeth cut the inside of my lip. While I reeled, one of Dmitry’s men yanked my arms behind me and cinched a plastic restraint around my wrists before they dragged me deeper into the warehouse.

CHAPTER 31

Sergei

We waited in darkness beyond the eastern edge of the Janus property, sixty yards from the warehouse and close enough to see the red security lights glowing above the loading doors. Fog gathered between the shipping containers and turned the armed men hidden along the perimeter into shadows that appeared and disappeared whenever the wind shifted.

Alessia’s voice had been in my ear less than a minute earlier. She’d been calm, keeping Levon and Sokolov focused on the money while Kit copied the records we had spent weeks chasing. I heard Dmitry enter.

Then, the audio died.

“Jammer,” Kit said from the command vehicle behind us. Her voice remained mostly calm, but her fingers moved too quickly over the receiver balanced across her knees. “They killed the normal channel. I’ve lost her earpiece. The collar should be fine, though. The emergency burst uses a separate low-frequency channel outside the range most commercial jammers target.”

My hand closed around the rear door handle of the vehicle. Maxim sat across from me, dressed in black with a weapon resting against his thigh. He looked at my hand and met my gaze.

“Hold. Give her a moment,” he cautioned.

Kit shoved the separate receiver into my free hand. A few seconds later, a small light flashed once. Immediately, I opened the door, and Maxim moved with me.

He spoke once into the radio. “Everyone. Go.”

Steel gates rolled shut at both ends of the warehouse property, cutting off the roads before the guards inside understood they had lost control of them. Bellandi vehicles moved into position along the docks, headlights remaining dark as Matteo’s men closed the water exits. Two boats approached silently from the harbor and blocked the channel beyond the warehouse.

A guard stepped from behind a shipping container and raised his weapon. Nikolai reached him first, striking the man’s wrist aside before the shot cleared the suppressor. The gun hit the pavement. Nikolai drove him into the steel container with one shoulder, left him crumpled beneath it, and kept moving without looking down.

Another man stepped through the door near the loading bay, and Maxim fired. The man fell backward through the opening, blocking the door from closing. Aleksei rushed through first. Ivan and Kit followed behind two security men, carrying only the equipment they needed to secure the computer.