Chapter 3: Get Out Now
Sarah stared at the screen for exactly two seconds.
Then she stood up.
"How many men do you have outside right now?" she asked Vincent.
He was already on his feet, already reaching for his phone.
"Two on the street.
One in the stairwell."
"That's not enough." She was moving toward the hallway, toward Lily's room.
"Who sent that message, Vincent?"
"I don't know yet." He had his phone to his ear.
"But I'm about to find out.
Don't turn on any lights you don't already have on."
Sarah pushed open Lily's door.
The little girl was asleep on her side, Mr.
Buttons tucked under one arm, her breathing slow and even.
Sarah stood in the doorway for one moment — just one — and then she crossed the room and lifted her daughter without waking her.
Lily stirred.
"Mama?"
"Shh.
We're going on a little trip, baby.
Close your eyes."
"Is it nighttime?"
"It's still nighttime.
Go back to sleep."
She carried Lily into the hallway.
Vincent was already off the phone, his voice low and controlled in the way that meant the situation was worse than his face was showing.
"Two of Volkov's men were spotted on the corner forty minutes ago," he said.
"My guy on the street just confirmed it.
They've been watching the building."
"For how long?"
"We don't know."
"Vincent." Sarah's voice didn't shake.
It had stopped shaking a long time ago, somewhere around the second year of this life.
"How did they find us?"
"I don't know yet.
But we're moving you right now." He held up a hand as she started to speak.
"There's a car downstairs.
Driver I trust personally.
We have a safe location — not one of the organization's, one of mine.
Nobody knows about it except me and one other person."
"Adrian?"
"No.
Not even Adrian."
She looked at him over Lily's sleeping head.
"You've been planning for this."
"I've been hoping I'd never need to." He moved to the apartment door, checked the peephole, then looked back at her.
"I need you to trust me for the next twenty minutes.
Can you do that?"
"I've trusted you for three years."
"I know.
I'm asking for twenty more minutes."
She shifted Lily higher on her hip, the little girl's weight warm and solid and real.
"What about Adrian?"
"He's being moved too.
Different route, different location.
He doesn't know about the message yet."
"He needs to know."
"He will.
Once you're both safe." Vincent eased the door open.
The stairwell man was already there, a broad-shouldered figure in a dark jacket whose name Sarah had never been told and had stopped asking.
"Stay close.
Don't stop moving.
If I tell you to run, you run."
They went down the back stairs in silence, Lily sleeping through all of it with the profound trust of a child who has never had reason to doubt that her mother's arms are the safest place in the world.
The car was waiting in the alley.
Sarah got in.
The door closed.
She looked out the rear window as they pulled away and saw, at the far end of the block, two men standing very still on the corner.
One of them was looking at her building.
The other one was looking at his phone.
Then the car turned and they were gone.
She held Lily tighter and said nothing for a long time.
Then: "Vincent.
The message.
The unknown number." She kept her voice low so as not to wake Lily.
"Someone warned us.
Someone who knew Volkov's people were there before your man on the street confirmed it."
Vincent was in the front seat.
He didn't turn around.
"Yes," he said.
"Who has that kind of information and isn't on your payroll?"
A pause.
Long enough to mean something.
"There's one person," Vincent said.
"But it's not possible.
He's been out of the city for two years.
He went clean."
"Who?"
Vincent finally turned.
His expression was the one he used when he was about to say something he wished he didn't have to.
"Marco Reyes," he said.
"Adrian's former intelligence contact.
The one who disappeared after the Volkov negotiation fell apart."
Sarah looked at him.
"The negotiation that started all of this."
"Yes."
May you like
Lily shifted in her arms, murmured something soft and wordless, and settled back into sleep.
"Find him," Sarah said.
