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—:—
“Where is that sonuvabitch?” Gunner murmured under his breath, not expecting Shiv to answer.
Petrov had ghosted, which wasn’t a surprise. Gunner didn’t care whether they found him or not, as long as he stayed deep enough to leave Raketa alone.
What worried him was that the woman Gunner believed was Raketa’s mother was gone too.
His plan had been to get in, get her, and get out. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew it wouldn’t be that simple.
His guess was that Petrov made sure Raketa knew her mother was on the compound. It would be easy to get her to do whatever he wanted if he used the woman she’d believed died when she was a child as bait.
Not only was she gone, the compound was empty—seemingly deserted. There was no trace of the arms’ dealer ever having been here. It was as though the ancient structure had been abandoned centuries ago. The modern upgrades in the various apartments were the only proof they hadn’t been.
“Ready?” Shiv asked, motioning to the corridor that would lead them to the waiting SUV.
Gunner shook his head. There had to be some clue he was overlooking.
“Where did Alegria say the woman was being kept?”
Shiv pointed to the drawing. “Here.”
“I’m going to take another look.” Gunner didn’t wait for Shiv to argue. He’d take all damn day if he wanted to, and the rest of the team could leave. He’d have no trouble making his way back to the rendezvous point.
“I’ll recheck the apartment Raketa was being held in.”
Gunner nodded, appreciating that Shiv might also be thinking they’d missed something.
Like every other space, this one offered little to go on.
Shiv’s team had collected what could be used for DNA samples whenever they could find any. Gunner hoped they were able to prove one way or another whether the woman who had been held here was Raketa’s mother.
Gunner walked every inch of the room, uncertain what he was searching for, but unable to shake the feeling he’d missed something.
He ran his hands over the walls, from ceiling to floor and found nothing. He was moving into the kitchen area when Shiv walked in, carrying what looked like an ancient wooden box in his gloved hands.
“What’s that?”
“Haven’t looked yet.”
“Let’s take it back with us,” Gunner suggested.
Shiv nodded.
“Where’d you find it?”
“In here.”
Gunner followed Shiv down the corridor, past the apartment Raketa had been in, and into another room that looked as though it might have been used for storage.
“The stone shifted when I walked over it,” Shiv told him.
Gunner looked at the hole dug into the earth beneath the flooring and was reminded of another op where they’d found documents buried in the floor of a cabin.
“Not very original,” he muttered.
“Depending on how old what we find might be, it could be quite original.”
“We should do another sweep of all the rooms.”
