Page 110 of The Enforcer’s Pawn

I turn toward Maksim. “We can watch the courier. Control the packets. Track the handoff.”

Cara answers before Maksim does. “If Patrick built this right, the handoff isn’t the whole message.”

Maksim studies her. “Say it clearly.”

Everyone looks at her.

Cara points at the charity name. “You want Patrick. This could bring him closer.”

“Explain,” Maksim says.

“Patrick would expect you to search ledgers, freeze accounts, chase couriers, and scare everyone off,” Cara says. “He wouldn’t expect someone to sit at dinner and listen.”

Dima shifts near the rear wall. “Listen for what?”

“The person who reacts wrongly,” Cara says.

Yuri frowns. “That’s not a technical category.”

“It should be,” Cara says. “Systems tell you what happened. People tell you why they thought they could get away with it.”

Elena’s face changes. Her foundation papers have already been copied once. Now the dinner under her roof is being used too.

“He wants a reaction,” Elena says, one hand tightening on the edge of the table.

Cara nods. “A bad one. One person says the message too easily. Someone corrects themselves, checks a phone, or overexplains the charity work.”

Her mouth tightens. She turns to Elena. “Add me to the dinner list.”

“No,” I say, stepping between her and the screen. “You aren’t bait.”

“Patrick is laying bait,” Cara says. “He wants someone in that room to hear the message and react.”

She looks back at the delivery file on the screen. The entry for Lena Markovic’s dinner packet sits in the middle of it. “I know how he builds traps like this.”

“He only needs someone in that room to notice you,” I say, lowering my voice. “If you react, they’ll know you understood him. If they connect you to Mikhail, Patrick gets another way in. And if you start a scene, Volkov has to move in front of everyone.”

“Then put Elena beside me, put your men around the exits, and let me listen.”

Elena turns to Maksim. “I’ll go with her.”

Maksim looks at Elena, then at Cara. “She attends.”

My hand curls into a fist. I tighten it until my palm hurts, then make myself let go.

Yuri’s monitor flashes.

Abramov leans in. “The courier has reached the estate service gate.”

The status changes.

Delivered.

25

CARA

The estate is dressing itself for money, charity, and lies.