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“He found me.”

“Yes.”

“He knew what to say at the closet.”

I smooth his hair back. “He remembered the secret question.”

Misha tucks the yellow car beneath his chin. “He said my car needed fuel, and I asked who had it.”

“And he answered.”

“Alexei.” Misha leans against me. “He’s working. He’ll come later.”

I press my mouth to his hair. “He promised.”

Cara watches from the couch, her mouth softening until she notices me looking. She stands, takes a key from her pocket, and locks the pistol inside a steel cabinet set high in the wall. Then she hands me a second key.

“Each of us has one,” Cara says, nodding toward Elena. “You, Elena, and me.”

Elena kneels beside Misha and opens the whale book. Cara calls Lidiya and asks for hot chocolate with extra cream for everyone. Mikhail rolls a red car across the rug, and Misha sends the yellow one after it.

Elena rests one hand on my shoulder. “Go talk to Alexei. Cara and I will stay with Misha.”

I look toward the sealed door. “Misha just saw armed men enter the room we said was safe. I’m staying with him.”

“You were in that room too,” Cara says, rising from the couch and reaching for the intercom. “Misha can stay here with Mikhail and Lev. This section has enough guards to defend a government. Go before Alexei breaks something expensive.”

I stand slowly.

Misha catches my wrist. “Mama stays.”

I crouch again. “Mama has to talk to Papa.”

When Lidiya brings hot chocolate, he takes the cup with both hands and drinks without looking away from the sealed door.

“Can I go and talk to Papa now, Misha?”

“Go,” he says, putting down the cup.

I wipe the thin brown line of chocolate from his upper lip.

He moves my hand away and says, “Don’t make bad faces.”

“I’ll try.”

Two guards escort me through the locked corridors, one ahead and one behind, with compact AK-105 rifles slung across their chests. Twice as many guards now stand at the second guard point. Blood marks the inner hall, and one bullet has chipped the stone near the security stair.

I find Alexei in his office. Inside, the monitor wall shows gate feeds, service corridors, and the captured man strapped to a chair downstairs.

Alexei stands before a steel filing cabinet with both hands at his sides.

I close the door behind me. “Did Yelena check you?”

“She did.”

“And?”

“Everything's fine.”