“I agree,” I told them.
“See? She agrees.”
“I also concur,” Cornelius said, approaching from the other hallway, Gus trailing him. He must’ve come inside at some point. “When there is an intruder in your house with a gun, you don’t shoot at their feet. You shoot to kill.”
Bern sighed.
I leaned past his broad back to look at the circle. The closest green corpse had long dark hair wound around her head in a kind of crown. I knew that hair. Melanie Poirier, one of Arkan’s combat mages. If Runa hadn’t nuked her immediately, we would have had a hard time neutralizing her.
Arkan risked a teleportation in broad daylight. Why? His hits were usually well planned and carefully executed. This seemed rushed, almost like a knee-jerk reaction to something. What could have upset him enough . . .
It hit me like lightning. I spun around and sprinted back to the study.
“What?” Runa yelled.
I didn’t answer.
I got to the study, yanked the keyboard to me, clicked the Warden Network, and typed in my login. Runa, Bern, Cornelius, and Gus ran into the room, followed by one of the Warden guards.
“What’s going on?” Runa demanded.
I didn’t have time to answer. The network accepted the login. The Warden interface unfolded in front of me. I accessed the databanks.
“Catalina? What happened?” Runa asked.
Ignat Orlov, alias Arkan, known associates. I scrolled through the list.
No . . .
No . . .
Trofim Smirnov.
I clicked the name. The dossier opened. The familiar face stared at me from the screen. A slender, stooped white man in his forties who looked like he was expecting a surprise punch.
Fuck.
I grabbed my phone from my pocket and called Patricia. No answer.
Bern grabbed me by the shoulders and held me still. “Explain.”
It took me a second to slow my brain enough to speak. “An hour ago, Prince Berezin showed up at the Compound asking to see me. I told Patricia to let him in. He was wearing this man’s face.”
Runa glanced at the screen. “Who is he?”
“Trofim Smirnov. He is Arkan’s Bernard.”
I had studied Arkan’s inner circle and I knew most of them by sight. But I had concentrated on combat operatives, people who were a threat if you spotted them in the crowd. Smirnov was a pattern cybermage. He was at his most dangerous behind a keyboard. He had been low priority. I had no idea how many lives my mistake would cost us.
They stared at me. Bern whipped his phone out and began making calls.
“Right now, Arkan thinks that his oldest friend betrayed him and defected to the Wardens, and we have him in our house. Smirnov knows too much. Arkan can’t let him live. He will retaliate.”
Konstantin had set us up. Arkan would stop at nothing to get his hands on Smirnov.
“Our phones are compromised,” Bern announced.
“How?” Runa asked.
He shook his head. He looked ready to rip someone apart with his bare hands.
“If Arkan can capture any of us and trade us for Smirnov, it would solve all his problems,” I said. “Everyone outside the Compound is a potential hostage or casualty.”
“Shit,” Runa said. “We can’t stay here.”
Runa was dangerous as hell, but all of the automated defenses were down, and none of the guards were above Average on the magic scale. If Arkan sent several heavy hitters and they attacked from different sides, there would be casualties.
We had to go. Now.
Bern turned to the Warden guard. “Get your people packed. Five minutes.”
I dialed Alessandro.
The guard looked at me. They answered only to the Office of the Warden.
“Do as he says,” I told him.
The guard double-timed it out of the room.
“Your call has been forwarded . . .”
Bern gently pushed me out of the way and bent over the desktop. His fingers flew over the keyboard. “Baby, I need the two laptops from the vault.”
Runa turned around and ran down the stairs.
I tried Alessandro again. Straight to voice mail. Text was my only option.
Konstantin put on Smirnov’s face and walked into our house.
Nothing else needed to be said. He would understand. I texted Leon, trying to explain the same thing as fast as I could.
Cornelius shook his head. “My phone is affected as well.”
The computer screen blinked, and Bug appeared on-screen. Connor’s surveillance specialist, lean, wiry, pale, and looking like he was taking care of ten things at once. “What do you want, weirdo?”