Page 146

“None.” His mouth tightens. “Three of the family heads called to thank me. The others were too frightened to speak.”

Alexei pulls out a chair for me, then takes the one beside it.

“Now,” Maksim says, “tell me what you found.”

Alexei places the clinic records on the walnut desk. “The stolen medicine left Vera’s hospital on a SeverMed cart,” he says. “Chernov’s company paid for ambulance trips to Zarya. The clinic used real ambulances and fake patient files to move wounded men.”

Leonid reads the first page. “Can the hospital deny this?”

“Yes,” I say. “Records are missing, and people are frightened. Marina tried to report it, and her complaint was erased.”

Dmitri turns from the window. “Then whoever runs this route may already know someone is looking.”

“If Belov is behind this, he’ll start clearing the clinics,” Alexei says. “We need to use the route before he closes it.”

He’s not talking to Maksim or the other men in the room. He holds my gaze for a long second, and I know what he’s telling me without a word.

“We have to use Misha’s name if we want to catch Belov doing this.”

My chair scrapes back. “No.”

28

VERA

“Misha stays here, inside the estate,” Alexei says at once.

I head for the door. “I’m not listening to this.”

Maksim comes around his desk and stops several feet away. “We need Belov to believe you’ve lost faith in this house after the breach.”

“Then keep his name out of this. I don’t want my son anywhere near ruthless, cunning men.”

Maksim runs a hand over his mouth. “The easiest way is to make Belov think you’ve decided to move Misha.” He pauses. “Misha’s name would only be on the papers.”

“A name on a form won’t convince anyone watching the estate,” Dmitri says.

Leonid has been writing down names and routes. He lowers his pen. “What would convince them?”

I look at the Zarya records and Chernov’s dispatch sheets, but every plan I consider puts Misha somewhere inside it. “I don’t know.”

Alexei gathers the files into one stack. “Think it over, Vera. Go through the records yourself and see what you find.”

I look at him. “You’re giving me access to everything?”

His eyes stay on mine. “You can’t make this decision if I only show you the pages that support my plan.”

Maksim takes a cigar from the packet and turns it slowly between his fingers. “Alexei has meetings with three captains and two business partners tomorrow morning. Use his office then, and ask for whatever you need.”

“I need the hospital backups, the pharmacy logs, SeverMed’s ambulance records, and everything New Harbor filed under Zarya.”

Leonid looks over his spectacles. “You’ll have it.”

The next morning, Alexei leads me through the main house while Sergei follows several steps behind us. Armed guards wait outside the library, their coats dusted with snow. Two older men leave their own guards in the hall and enter the library as we pass. One of them looks Alexei over without greeting him before the doors close.

“Captains?” I ask.

“Yes. Maksim called them here to find out who stands with him.”