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"Consider it done." Krause disconnected.

I started searching for Eddie Pope's possible hiding places. The guy lived in Silicon Valley but he'd come to LA to find Russell.

I pulled up property records, cross-referenced business connections, dug through shell companies.

Thompson's message popped up twenty minutes later.

Found three properties Eddie has access to. Not in his name. Shell company holdings and business partner arrangements.

He sent addresses. A girlfriend's house in Manhattan Beach. Office building in Culver City owned by a business partner. Vacation property in Malibu under a shell corporation Eddie co-owned.

All of them in LA. All of them places Eddie could hide without his name appearing on any paperwork.

I checked the time. Four-thirty in the morning. Katherine had been asleep for three hours.

I hated to wake her. She needed rest.

But Viktor would be on the ground in two hours. We had to move.

I went into the bedroom and sat down carefully on the edge of the bed. Touched her shoulder.

"Katherine."

She stirred, mumbled something.

"Katherine, wake up. We need to go."

Her eyes opened, unfocused at first, then sharpening as she saw my face.

"What's wrong?"

"Viktor Sokolov left Moscow six hours ago. He's flying to Los Angeles with eight operatives. He'll be here in two hours."

She sat up fast, all traces of sleep gone. "Two hours?"

"Maybe three if we're lucky, but probably two. Thompson hacked Russell's cloud. Russell's not just blackmailing you and Eddie. He's got five other targets. Two hundred million in total demands."

"Jesus." She pushed hair out of her face. "What do we do?"

"We find Eddie Pope before Viktor does. Eddie might know where Russell is hiding, or we can use him as leverage to draw Russell out."

"And if Viktor finds Eddie first?"

"Then Viktor gets to Russell, gets the technology, and we're loose ends to be eliminated."

Katherine stood and started pulling on clothes. No hesitation, no panic. Just immediate action.

"I’ll go in and wake Sophie. I hope she’s not too out of it.” She paused and actually smiled. “Then again, I hope she was out enough not to hear us.”

I grinned back. The same thought had crossed my mind.

“Where are we going?" she asked.

"Different location. It’s best we stay on the move.”

“Okay.”

“I'm meeting Krause for weapons, then picking up Simon from LAX. We're going to split up and search three locations where Eddie might be hiding."