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Leonid checks the list.

“The missing boxes hold the freed-family files, the claims against six captains, and the transfer papers tied to Vera’s father.”

Abramov’s radio crackles. He listens, then turns to Kirill.

“Our team has the archive building. The main cameras were cut, but they found the recorder inside the guard’s room.”

A file reaches Kirill’s screen. He opens it on the control wall.

Two men in black enter through the rear door. Both wear hoods. One is thin, while the other is broader through the shoulders. The thin man holds a key card to the reader, enters the code, and opens the archive door without stopping.

“He knows the place,” I say.

“And the code,” Kirill adds.

The next image shows them loading the marked boxes onto a cart.

Abramov listens to another report. “My men found the key card beside the rear gate. It belongs to Benedikt Sidorov.”

“Bring him in,” Maksim says.

“He’s at home,” Abramov replies. “He says he has worked for us for twenty-eight years and has always been loyal. His wife swears he never left the house last night.”

Kirill freezes the thin man on-screen.

“Then someone stole Sidorov’s card,” I say. “And he knew exactly which boxes to take.”

Leonid checks the staff file. “His son drives for Semyon Vlasov.”

Maksim grips the table. “Bring the son in. Find out who had access to his father’s card.”

Leonid calls Nina Voronina, the outside records lawyer who helped Elena prove which companies, debts, and warehouse papers had been used against her. Her office is separate from the Volkov organization, so the captains can’t change her copies through Volkov clerks.

He speaks to her for less than a minute, then ends the call.

“She’s getting official copies of every record tied to Vera’s father’s company and the Yaroslavl warehouse,” Leonid says. “Her office will be told if anyone tries to add a debt, change the owner, or move the property.”

“Tell her to keep the copies there,” I say. “Nothing goes through a Volkov courier.”

Mrs. Wentworth enters with fresh coffee and news from the family suite.

“Elena, Cara, Lev, Mikhail, Misha, Vera, and Oksana are inside. Guards hold the entrance and the chapel turn, and every person entering the corridor is being recorded.”

“No staff movement without Abramov’s approval,” Maksim says.

“Understood.”

She replaces the empty pot and leaves.

Roman calls from Lyubertsy.

“The serial number matches one of your guns,” he says. “It went missing with your things after you were shot, along with your secure phone. There’s more.”

“Speak.”

“Someone messaged Lebedev from a burner,” Roman says. “The message used your command code and told him to come alone and ask about the Orlov heir.”

“They found the code on the phone stolen at the hospital,” Kirill says.