Page 108 of Stolen Empire

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A paperclip.

Anything.

But I find nothing at all.

I turn to the door, examining the lock.

It's old, rusted.

The kind that might give with enough force.

Or the kind that needs to be picked.

Christ, why couldn't I just listen to him?

My eyes well up again and I press my forehead against the cold metal.

He said he'd follow me and that he'd be within range of me.

And I know he heard what was happening on the wire he had to have.

So the only thing I can do now is wait.

I don't have my lock pick kit.

I don't have any tools to break out.

And I'm not strong enough to overpower them when they come back.

Because something tells me they're coming back, and I won’t like what they do to me when they get here.

18

DIMITRI

The wire goes dead at 2:15.

I'm in my car, three blocks from the warehouse.

The engine idles, and the audio feed cuts mid-sentence—someone's voice tells Katya this is "standard procedure".

Then static fills the air.

Then silence.

I stare at the phone.

My thumb hovers over the screen.

Every instinct screams at me to act.

I want to move, to do something, but I force myself to wait.

If she's talking herself out of this, I must let her work.

I know that barging in now could mean walking into an ambush. She’d hate me for ruining her play.

I pull up the tracking app.

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