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,