trast to the muffled sounds of destruction outside t
ound of profound finality. I leaned against the door,
reath; for a long moment,
slowly unspooled at my sides. I walked over to
cuments. The embossed letterhead of the city's most
using my legitimate business accounts to
o's encrypted tablet, left b
k screen. It came
urity video
the master bedroom o
ows, complaining in a petulant ton
sign drafts, her laughter a high, th
kiss her forehead with a tenderness so alien it
orrow," Lorenzo promised her in the vi
use is y
felt suddenly thin
documents from the drawer
enzo had given me five years ago. The paper was w
to someone else. I carried the medical files and the letter
chine whirred, and the documents were in
d her lies were rendered in
ve; it was an absence, a space whe
rdrobe and pressed the
opped open. I pulled
passport and my forged i
dden wall safe and extracte
esigns for the family's int
ions, and I had draw
uitcase. Their weight felt substan
ent bag containing my half
ed it
r the blueprints like a burial sh
he handle. I stepped out of the
veyard of shattered gl
uins, each step a percuss
mber for an extraction vehicle, the cal
the fron
It was a solid mass of blac
ed bodyguards
stepped forward, his bulk eclips
t the black suit
re going?" Silas asked, h
not
guards moved to block my path, the
oor of the armor
his expression dark
enced the distant city traffic. He stopped, and his shadow f
luggage. A muscle in his cheek ju
ing a long, steady finger
is voice low and toneless,
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