Page 58 of The Last Dance

He shook his head, just once. “No visual. Car is unregistered. They left by foot, then transferred to vehicle at the north perimeter. Spotters missed it.”

“Plate?”

“Stolen. We’re working the traffic cams now.”

“Cell?”

“Dark.”

The words landed like gunshots, but I did not flinch. I did not have that luxury.

I pressed the red command button on the desk. The alarm was silent, but every man on the property would hear it and arrive in under four minutes. I counted down in my head: 3:59, 3:58, 3:57—

Yuri did not move. He waited for the next order.

“Activate London contacts,” I said. “She will try to vanish abroad. Put eyes on every airport, every private jet, every passport in her name and in the name of her mother’s family. She’ll use one of the legacy documents. You know the list.”

He made a note on his phone, not looking away from me. “Parsons?”

“Surveillance teams to his house, passive only. I want live updates. No contact unless he moves. If he so much as cracks a window, we need to know first.”

“Understood.”

“Pull every thread. Phone records, shell trust, storage unit, secondary property, every visitor to that address for the last eighteen months. I want the picture built in two hours.”

“It will be done.”

I paused. I wanted to hit something, wanted to break the desk in half with my hands. Instead, I closed my eyes for a second, then opened them and let the cold do its work.

“Sasha’s debt is cancelled,” I said. “She is no longer under protection. If you find her, bring her to me. She answers for this personally.”

Yuri nodded, slow. “The promise to her father—”

“Is paid in blood,” I said. “It is not infinite. It is not transferable. If she wants to call in her own debt, she can do it to my face.”

There was no heat in my voice. I did not need heat.

The men arrived, in groups of three, all armed, all ready for orders. Lin entered last, still in his house jacket, hands folded, expression identical to the one he’d worn at breakfast that morning.

I counted every face, every man I had trusted enough to keep on staff. I saw in their eyes the reflection of my own face, and I did not like what it said about me.

I issued the orders: no one in or out, full lockdown, all vehicles accounted for, all exterior points checked and rechecked every thirty minutes. Anyone not on the property by 7:45 would be treated as hostile until proven otherwise. The men nodded, some with more understanding than others. No one asked about the missing boy.

I did not tell them to look for him.

I knew where he was.

Yuri waited until the room was empty, then said, “We can recover him.”

I looked at the board, at the pins and lines and notes that represented an entire year of my life reduced to red and blue string. I wondered if any of it mattered. “We will recover him,” I said.

Yuri inclined his head, once. “Do you want to go to the house yourself?”

I thought about it. “No. Not yet. Parsons is too smart to use the primary address. He will move him, or he will hide him somewhere close.”

Yuri accepted that. He made three phone calls, each lasting less than a minute. He typed on the console, updating the map, shifting the positions of the surveillance teams, building a net that would close tight and fast.

I turned to Lin. “You knew this was coming.”