Page 70 of Let Sleeping Vampires Lie

“You up?” he asked, though he could see the answer.

“Obviously.”

“You look better,” he said.

“You look exactly the same.”

His mouth twitched, as if he weren’t sure whether to smile or lecture me again. Instead, he got to the point.

“Manu has something,” he said. “You ready?”

“Always.”

He opened the door again and waited until I passed through, then followed close behind as we moved down the hallway. The mansion felt more alive now—voices murmuring behind doors, footsteps echoing farther down, the clatter of someone downstairs prepping for night patrols.

The tension from last night still lingered like smoke, but at least the building breathed again.

We descended the stairs and made our way to the conference room. The door was already open. Manu stood at the head of the long table, surrounded by a cluster of screens and papers. Julian perched at one corner, typing furiously on his laptop, eyes darting across lines of code and encrypted messages.

Both men looked up when we entered.

“You survived,” Julian said when he saw me. “I was worried.”

“I’m tougher than I look,” I replied.

Manu gave Julian a pointed look before turning to us. “Marcus’ lead checks out. The piece is moving through an elite auction channel. Very private. Very expensive. Very illegal.”

Con folded his arms. “Same network Dimitri used?”

“Same level,” Manu said. “Different players. More ruthless than Dimitri. Less theatrical.”

I stepped closer. “Was my name on the list?”

Manu tapped a finger against a stack of papers beside him. “That’s the thing. No. Not yet. The broker hasn’t released the official invite list. But there’s movement in their system.”

I exhaled through my nose. “We already made contact with Marcus’ group. They told him to wait for the next message. A text with instructions.”

“And you got nothing since then?” Manu asked.

“Nothing.”

Julian didn’t look up from his screen. “That’s because it’s automated. And slow. They screen potential buyers against internal blacklists and tag risk profiles.”

“Meaning they’re stalling?” I asked.

“Meaning they’re weighing whether your ‘identity’ checks out,” Julian said. “If Marcus tied you to Dimitri as intended, then they’ll probably let you through. But not quickly.”

“How long is ‘not quickly’?” Con asked.

“Hours. Maybe a day,” Julian said. “But I wasn’t willing to sit around and wait.”

He finally looked up, smirking. “So I hacked the list.”

Con smiled. “Of course you did.”

“What did you find?” I asked.

Julian spun the laptop around. A map glowed on the screen, marked with a blinking red point.