Page 424 of Black Reign

Enough to take him safely.

Xavier's team moves.

Glinchesvsky never makes it to the supposed archive.

He's detained twenty-three minutes later.

Two phones.

One encrypted hardware token.

False identity documents.

A weapon.

And buried inside the token⁠—

the same certificate lineage Papa recorded all those years ago.

I sit back.

The adrenaline leaves all at once.

My hands begin shaking.

Xavier sees.

He takes them.

No announcement.

Just both of mine inside his.

Senior stands across from us staring at the frozen screen showing Glinchesvsky's name.

“He was in my house.”

Neither of us speaks.

“He held Xavier when he was a baby.”

Xavier looks up.

I turn toward Senior.

His face has changed.

Older somehow.

“I trusted him.”

There it is.

The guilt.

Not murder.

Something different.